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COPYRIGHT DEPOSre 



LIVES OF AMERICAN WORTHIES. 

Under the above title, Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. 
are contributing one inore biographical series to the 
number with which the reading world is being so abund- 
antly favored. 

That there may be something in the method of this 
series not altogether indentical with that of its numerous 
predecessors, contemporaries and promised successors, 
will perhaps be suspected from the list of subjects and 
authors thus far selected : 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, (1440-1506), 

By W. L. Alden, {of the New York Times), 
Author of " The Moral Pirates^" etc. 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, (1579-1631), 

By Charles Dudley Warner, Author of 
'^ My Su7nmer ifi a Gardeu," etc. 
WILLIAM PENN, (1644-1715), 

By Robert J. Burdette, of the Burllugtoii 
Hawkeye. 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1 706-1 790), 

By 
GEORGE WASHINGTON, (1732-1799), 

By John Habberton, Author of " Helen s 
Babies," etc. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON, (1743-1826), 

By 
ANDREW JACKSON, (1767-1845), 

By George T. Lanigan, Author of " Fables 
out of the World." 
If the names of the authors awaken a suspicion 
that there may be something humorous in the books, it 
should be known that despite anything of that kind, the 
truth of history is adhered to with most uncompromising 
rigidity — perhaps, in some cases, a little too uncom- 
promising, or compromising : that depends on the point 
of view. 

Recent announcements make it proper to state that 
this series was begun several years before the date of 
this prospectus, and that the first volume published — 
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's Life of Captain John 
Smith, was in type in the Spring of the current year. 
New York, October, 1881. 



LIVES OF AMERICAN WORTHIES 



Captain John Smith 



(1579-1631) 



SOMETIME GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, AND 
ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND 

A STUDY OF 

HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS 



BY 

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1881 



I- 






Copyrighted, i88i, 

BY 

HENRY HOLT & CO. 



Electrotyped and Printed by 

S. W.GREEN'S SON, 
74 and 76 Beekman Street, 

KBW YORK. 



PREFACE. 



When I consented to prepare this volume for a 
series, which should deal with the notables of 
American history with some familiarity and disre- 
gard of historic gravity, I did not anticipate the se- 
riousness of the task. But investigation of the sub- 
ject showed me that while Capt. John Smith would 
lend himself easily enough to a purely facetious 
treatment, there were historic problems worthy of 
a different handling, and that if the life of Smith 
was to be written, an effort should be made to state 
the truth, and to disentangle the career of the ad- 
venturer from the fables and misrepresentations 
that have clustered about it. 

The extant biographies of Smith, and the portions 
of the history of Virginia that relate to him, all fol- 
low his own narrative, and accept his estimate of 
himself, and are little more than paraphrases of his 
story as told by himself. But within the last 
twenty years some new contemporary evidence has 
come to light, and special scholars have expended 
much critical research upon different portions of 
his career. The result of this modern investigation 
has been to discredit much of the romance gathered 
about Smith and Pocahontas, and a good deal to 
reduce his heroic proportions. A vague report of 
these scholarly studies has gone abroad, but no ef- 
fort has been made to tell the real story of Smith 



IV PREFACE. 

as a connected whole in the light of the new re- 
searches. 

This volume is an effort to put in popular form 
the truth about Smith's adventures, and to estimate 
his exploits and character. For this purpose I have 
depended almost entirely upon original contempo- 
rary material, illumined as it now is by the labors 
of special editors. I believe that I have read every- 
thing that is attributed to his pen, and have com- 
pared his own accounts with other contemporary 
narratives, and I think I have omitted the perusal 
of little that could throw any light upon his life or 
character. For the early part of his career — before 
he came to Virginia — there is absolutely no author- 
ity except Smith himself; but when he emerges 
from romance into history, he can be followed and 
checked by contemporary evidence. If he was al- 
ways and uniformly untrustworthy it would be less 
perplexing to follow him, but his liability to tell the 
truth when vanity or prejudice does not interfere is 
annoying to the careful student. 

As far as possible I have endeavored to let the 
actors in these pages tell their own story, and I 
have quoted freely from Capt. Smith himself, be- 
cause it is as a writer that he is to be judged 
no less than as an actor. His development of 
the Pocahontas legend has been carefully traced, 
and all the known facts about that Indian — or 
Indese, as some of the old chroniclers call the 
female North Americans — have been consecutively 
set forth in separate chapters. The book is not a 
history of early Virginia, nor of the times of Smith, 
but merely a study of his life and writings. If my 
estimate of the character of Smith is not that which 
his biographers have entertained, and differs from 



PREFACE. V 

his own candid opinion, I can only plead that con- 
temporary evidence and a collation of his own 
stories show that he was mistaken. I am not 
aware that there has been before any systematic 
effort to collate his different accounts of his ex- 
ploits. If he had ever undertaken the task he 
might have disturbed that serene opinion of him- 
self which marks him as a man who realized his 
own ideals. 

The works used in this study are, first, the writ- 
ings of Smith, which are as follows: — 

"A True Relation," etc., London, 1608. 

"A Map of Virginia, Description and Appendix," 
Oxford, 161 2. 

"A Description of New England," etc., London, 
1616. 

"New England's Trials," etc., London, 1620. 
Second edition, enlarged, 1622. 

"The Generall Historic," etc., London, 1624. 
Reissued, with date of title-page altered, in 1626, 
1627, and twice in 1632. 

" An Accidence: or. The Pathway to Experience," 
etc., London, 1626. 

"A Sea Grammar," etc., London, 1627. Also 
editions in 1653 and 1699. 

" The True Travels," etc., London, 1630. 

" Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters 
of New England," etc., London, 163 1. 

Other authorities are: 

" The Historic of Travaile into Virginia," etc., by 
William Strachey, Secretary of the colony 1609 to 
16 1 2. First printed for the Hakluyt Society, Lon- 
don, 1849. 

" Newport's Relatyon," 1607. Am. Ant. Soc, 
vol. 4. 



VI PREFACE. 

"Wingfield's Discourse," etc., 1607. Am. Ant. 
Soc, vol. 4. 

" Purchas his Pilgrimage," London, 1613. 

" Purchas his Pilgrimes," London, 1625-6. 

" Ralph Hamor's True Discourse," etc., London, 
1615. 

" Relation of Virginia," by Henry Spelman, 1609. 
First printed by J. F. Hunnewell, London, 1872. 

" History of the Virginia Company in London," 
by Edward D. Neill, Albany, 1869. 

"William Stith's History of Virginia," 1753, has 
been consulted for the charters and letters-patent. 
The Pocahontas discussion has been followed in 
many magazine papers. I am greatly indebted to 
the scholarly labors of Charles Deane, LL.D., the ac- 
complished editor of the " True Relation," and other 
Virginia monographs. I wish also to acknowledge 
the courtesy of the librarians of the Astor, the 
Lenox, the New York Historical, Yale, and Cornell 
libraries, and of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, the cus- 
todian of the Brinley collection, and the kindness 
of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, of New York, who is ever 
ready to give students access to his rich " Ameri- 
cana." C. D. w. 

Hai'tford^ June, i88i. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND TRAINING. 

FORTUNATE is the hero who links his name ro- 
mantically with that of a woman. A tender inter- 
est in his fame is assured. Still more fortunate is he 
if he is able to record his own achievements and give 
to them that form and color and importance, which 
they assume in his own gallant consciousness. 
Captain John Smith, the first of an honored name, 
had this double good fortune. 

We are indebted to him for the glowing picture 
of a knight-errant of the sixteenth centurj^, mov- 
ing with the port of a swash-buckler across the 
field of vision, wherever cities were to be taken 
and heads cracked in Europe, Asia and Africa, and, 
in the language of one of his laureates — 

" To see bright honor sparkled all in gore." 

But we are specially his debtor for adventures on 
our own continent, narrated with naivete and vigor 
by a pen as direct and clear-cutting as the sword 
with which he shaved off the heads of the Turks, 
and for one of the few romances that illumine our 
early history. 

Captain John Smith understood his good fortune 
in being the recorder of his own deeds, and he 
preceded Lord Beaconsfield (in " Endymion ") in his 
appreciation of the value of the influence of women 
upon the career of a hero. In the dedication of his 



2 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [^t. 13 

'' General Historie" to Frances, Duchess of Rich- 
mond, he says : 

" I have deeply hazarded myself in doing and 
suffering, and why should I sticke to hazard my rep- 
utation in recording ? He that acteth two parts is 
the more borne withall if he come short, or fayle in 
one of them. Where shall we looke to finde a Ju- 
lius Caesar whose atchievments shine as cleare in 
his owne Commentaries, as they did in the field ? 
I confesse, my hand though able to wield a weapon 
among the Barbarous, yet well may tremble in 
handling a Pen among so many Judicious ; especial- 
ly when I am so bold as to call so piercing and so 
glorious an Eye, as your Grace, to viev^A these poore 
ragged lines. Yet my comfort is that heretofore 
honorable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable 
but amongst themselves, have offered me rescue 
and protection in my greatest dangers: even in 
forraine parts, I have felt reliefe from that sex. The 
beauteous Lady Tragabigzanda, w^hen I was a slave 
to the Turks, did all she could to secure me. When 
I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Tartaria, the 
charitable Lady Callamata supplyed my necessities. 
In the utmost of many extremities, that blessed 
Pokahontas, the great King's daughter of Virginia, 
oft saved my life. When I escaped the cruelties of 
Pirats and most furious stormes, a long time alone 
in a small Boat at Sea, and driven ashore in France, 
the good Lady Chanoyes bountifully assisted me." 

It is stated in his "True Travels" that John 
Smith was born in Willoughby, in Lincolnshire. 
The year of his birth is not given, but it was prob- 
ably in T579, as it appears by the portrait prefixed 
to that work that he was aged 37 years in 16 16. 
We are able to add also that the rector of the Wil- 



1579] BIRTH AND TRAINING. 3 

loughby Rectory, Alford, finds in the register an 
entry of the baptism of John, son of George Smith, 
under date of Jan. 9th, 1579. His biographers, fol- 
lowing his account, represent him as of ancient 
lineage : " His father actually descended from the 
ancient Smiths of Crudley in Lancashire, his mother 
from the Rickands at great Heck in Yorkshire ;" 
but the circumstances of his boyhood would indi- 
cate that like many other men who have made 
themselves a name, his origin was humble. If it 
had been otherwise he would scarcely have been 
bound as an apprentice, nor had so much difficulty 
in his advancement. But the boy was born with a 
merry disposition, and in his earliest years was 
impatient for adventure. The desire to rove was 
doubtless increased by the nature of his native 
shire, which offered every inducement to a lad of 
spirit to leave it. 

Lincolnshire is the most uninteresting part of all 
England. It is frequently water-logged till late in 
the summer : invisible a part of the year, when it 
emerges it is mostly a dreary flat. Willoughby is 
a considerable village in this shire, situated about 
three miles and a half south-eastward from Alford. 
It stands just on the edge of the chalk hills whose 
drives gently slope down to the German Ocean, 
and the scenery around offers an unvarying expanse 
of flats. All the villages in this part of Lincolnshire 
exhibit the same character. The name ends in by\ 
the Danish word for hamlet or small village, and 
we can measure the progress of the Danish invasion 
of England by the number of towns which have 
the terminal by^ distinguished from the Saxon thorpe, 
which generally ends the name of villages in York- 
shire. The population may be said to be Danish — 



4 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 13 

light-haired and blue-eyed. Such was John Smith. 
The sea was the natural element of his neighbors, 
and John when a boy must have heard many stories 
of the sea and enticing adventures told by the 
sturdy mariners who were recruited from the neigh- 
borhood of Willoughby, and whose oars had often 
cloven the Baltic Sea. 

Willoughby boasts some antiquity. Its church 
is a spacious structure, with a nave, north and south 
aisles, and a chancel, and a tower at the west end. 
In the floor is a stone with a Latin inscription, in 
black letter, round the verge, to the memory of one 
Gilbert West, who died in 1404. The church is 
dedicated to St. Helen. In the village the Wesleyan 
Methodists also have a place of worship. Accord- 
ing to the parliamentary returns of 1825, the parish 
including the hamlet of Sloothby contained 108 
houses and 514 inhabitants. All the churches in 
Lincolnshire indicate the existence of a much larger 
population who were in the habit of attending 
service than exists at present. Many of these now 
empty are of size sufficient to accommodate the 
entire population of several villages. Such a one 
is Willoughby, which unites in its church the adja- 
cent village of Sloothby. 

The stories of the sailors and the contiguity of 
the salt water had more influence on the boy's mind 
than the free schools of Alford and Louth which he 
attended, and when he was about thirteen he sold 
his books and satchel and intended to run away to 
sea : but the death of his father stayed him. Both 
his parents being now dead, he was left with, he 
says, competent means ; but his guardians regarding 
his estate more than himself, gave him full liberty 
and no money, so that he was forced to stay at home. 



1592] BIRTH AND TRAINING. 5 

At the age of fifteen he was bound apprentice to 
Mr. Thomas S. Tendall of Lynn. The articles, how- 
ever, did not bind him very fast, for as his master 
refused to send him to sea, John took leave of his 
master and did not see him again for eight years. 
These details exhibit in the boy the headstrong in- 
dependence of the man. 

At length he found means to attach himself to a 
young son of the great soldier Lord Willoughby, 
who was going into France. The narrative is not 
clear, but it appears that upon reaching Orleans, in 
a month or so the services of John were found to be 
of no value, and he was sent back to his friends, 
who on his return generously gave him ten shillings 
(out of his own estate) to be rid of him. He is next 
heard of enjoying his liberty at Paris and making 
the acquaintance of a Scotchman named David 
Hume, who used his purse — ten shillings went a 
long ways in those days — and in return gave him 
letters of commendation to prefer him to King 
James. But the boy had a disinclination to go 
where he was sent. Reaching Rouen, and being 
nearly out of money, he dropped down the river to 
Havre de Grace, and began to learn to be a soldier. 

Smith says not a word of the great war of the 
Leaguers and Henry IV., nor on which side he 
fought, nor is it probable that he cared. But he was 
doubtless on the side of Henry, as Havre was at this 
time in possession of that soldier. Our adventurer 
not only makes no reference to the great religious 
war, nor to the League, nor to Henry, but he does 
not tell who held Paris when he visited it. Appar- 
ently state affairs did not interest him. His refer- 
ence to a "peace" helps us to fix the date of his 
first adventure in France. Henry published the 



6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 16-20 

Edict of Nantes at Paris, April 13, 1598, and on 
the 2d of May following, concluded the treaty of 
France with Philip II. at Vervins, which closed the 
Spanish pretensions in France. The Due de Mer- 
coeur (of whom we shall hear later as Smith's *' Duke 
of Mercury " in Hungary), Duke of Lorraine, was 
allied with the Guises in the League, and had the 
design of holding Bretagne under Spanish protec- 
tion. However, fortune was against him and he 
submitted to Henry in February, 1598, wuth no good 
grace. Looking about for an opportunity to dis- 
tinguish himself, he offered his services to the Em- 
peror Rudolph to fight the Turks, and it is said led 
an army of his French followers, numbering 15,000, 
in 1 60 1, to Hungary, to raise the siege of Caniza, 
which was beleaguered by Ibrahim Pasha with 
60,000 men. 

Chance of fighting and pay failing in France by 
reason of the peace, he enrolled himself under the 
banner of one of the roving and fighting captains 
of the time, who sold their swords in the best mar- 
ket, and went over into the Low Countries, where 
he hacked and hewed away at his fellow-men, all in 
the way of business, for three or four years. At the 
end of that time he bethought himself that he had 
not delivered his letters to Scotland. He embarked 
at Aucusan for Leith, and seems to have been ship- 
wrecked, and detained by illness in the "holy isle" 
in Northumberland, near Barwick. On his recov- 
ery he delivered his letters, and received kind treat- 
ment from the Scots ; but as he had no money, 
which was needed to make his way as a courtier, he 
returned to Willoughby. 

The family of Smith is so "ancient" that the his- 
torians of the county of Lincoln do not allude to it. 



1599] BIRTH AND TRAINING. 7 

and only devote a brief paragraph to the great John 
himself. Willoughby must have been a dull place 
10 him after his adventures, but he says he was 
glutted with company, and retired into a woody 
pasture, surrounded by forests, a good ways from 
any town, and there built himself a pavilion of 
boughs— less substantial than the cabin of Thoreau 
at Walden Pond— and there he heroically slept in 
his clothes, studied Machiavelli's " Art of War," read 
" Marcus Aurelius," and exercised on his horse with 
lance and ring. This solitory conduct got him the 
name of a hermit, whose food was thought to be 
more of venison than anything else, but in fact his 
men kept him supplied with provisions. When 
John had indulged in this ostentatious seclusion for 
a time, he allowed himself to be drawn out of it by 
the charming discourse of a noble Italian named 
Theodore Palaloga, who just then was Rider to 
Henry Earl of Lincoln, and went to stay with him 
at Tattershall. This was an ancient town, with a 
castle, which belonged to the Earls of Lincoln, and 
was situated on the River Bane, only fourteen miles 
from Boston, a name that at once establishes a 
connection between Smith's native county and our 
own country, for it is nearly as certain that St. Bo- 
tolph founded a monastery at Boston, Lincoln, in 
the year 654, as it is that he founded a club after- 
wards in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Whatever were the pleasures of Tattershall, they 
could not long content the restless Smith, who soon 
set out again for the Netherlands in search of adven- 
tures. 

The life of Smith, as it is related by himself, reads 
like that of a belligerent tramp, but it was not un- 
common in his day, nor is it in ours, whenever Amer- 



8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 20-21 

ica produces soldiers of fortune who are ready, for a 
compensation, to take up the quarrels of Egyptians 
or, Chinese, or go wherever there is fighting and 
booty. Smith could now handle arms and ride a 
horse, and longed to go against the Turks, whose 
anti-Christian contests filled his soul with lamenta- 
tions; and besides he was tired of seeing Christians 
slaughter each other. Like most heroes, he had a 
vivid imagination that made him credulous, and in 
the Netherlands he fell into the toils of three French 
gallants, one of w^hom pretended to be a great lord, 
attended by his gentlemen, who persuaded him to 
accompany them to the "Duchess of Mercury," 
whose lord was then a general of Rodolphus of 
Hungary, whose favor they could command. Em- 
barking with these arrant cheats, the vessel reached 
the coast of Picardy, where his comrades contrived 
to take ashore their own baggage and Smith's trunk, 
containing his money and goodly apparel, leaving 
him on board. When the captain, who was in the 
plot, was enabled to land Smith the next day, the 
noble lords had disappeared with the luggage, and 
Smith, who had only a single piece of gold in his 
pocket, was obliged to sell his cloak to pay his pas- 
sage. 

Thus stripped, he roamed about Normandy in a 
forlorn condition, occasionally entertained by hon- 
orable persons who had heard of his misfortunes, 
and seeking always means of continuing his travels, 
wandering from port to port on the chance of em- 
barking on a man-of-war. Once he was found in a 
forest near dead with grief and cold, and rescued by 
a rich farmer ; shortly afterwards, in a grove in Brit- 
tany, he chanced upon one of the gallants who had 
robbed him, and the two out swords and fell to cut- 



i6oo] BIRTH AND TRAINING. 9 

ting. Smith had the satisfaction of wOunding the 
rascal, and the inhabitants of a ruined tower near by, 
who witnessed the combat, Vv^ere quite satisfied with 
the event. 

Our hero then sought out the Earl of Ployer, 
who had been brought up in England during the 
French wars, by whom he was refurnished better 
than ever. After this streak of luck, he roamed 
about France, viewing the castles and strongholds, 
and at length embarked at Marseilles on a ship for 
Italy. Rough weather coming on, the vessel an- 
chored under the lee of the little isle St. Mary, off 
Nice, in Savoy. 

The passengers on board, among v/hom were 
many pilgrims bound for Rome, regarded Smith as 
a Jonah, cursed him for a Huguenot, swore that his 
nation were all pirates, railed against Queen Eliza- 
beth, and declared that they never should have fair 
weather so long as he was on board. To end the 
dispute, they threw him into the sea. But God got 
him ashore on the little island, whose only inhabi- 
tants were goats and a few kine. The next day a 
couple of trading vessels anchored near, and he was 
taken off and so kindly used that he decided to cast 
in his fortune with them. Smith's discourse of his 
adventures so entertained the master of one of the 
vessels, who is described as " this noble Britaine, his 
neighbor, Captaine la Roche, of Saint Malo," that 
the much-tossed wanderer was accepted as a friend. 
They sailed to the Gulf of Turin, to Alessandria, 
where they discharged freight, then up to Scander- 
Gon, and coasting for some time among the Grecian 
islands, evidently in search of more freight, they at 
length came round to Cephalonia, and lay to for 
some days betwixt the isle of Corfu and the Cape of 



10 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 21 

Otranto. Here it presently appeared what sort of 
freight the noble Britaine, Captain la Roche, was 
looking for. 

An argosy of Venice hove in sight, and Captaine 
la Roche desired to speak to her. The reply was so 
" untoward " that a man was slain, whereupon the 
Britaine gave the argosy a broadside, and then his 
stern, and then other broadsides. A lively fight en- 
sued, in which the Britaine lost fifteen men, and the 
argosy twenty, and then surrendered to save herself 
from sinking. The noble Britaine and John Smith 
then proceeded to rifle her. He says that "the 
Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of Gold, and Tissue, Pyasters, 
Chiqueenes and Sultanies, which is gold and silver, 
they unloaded in four-and-twenty hours was won- 
derful, whereof having sufficient, and tired with 
toils, they cast her off with her company, with as 
much good merchandise as would have freighted 
another Britaine, that was but two hundred Tunnes, 
she four or five hundred." Smith's share of this 
booty was modest. When the ship returned he was 
set ashore at " the Road of Antibo in Piamon," 
"with five hundred chiqueenes [sequins] and a little 
box God sent him worth neere as much more." He 
always devoutly acknowledged his dependence upon 
divine Providence, and took willingly what God 
sent him. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 

SMITH being thus '' refurnished," made the tour of 
Italy, satisfied himself with the rarities of Rome, 
where he saw Pope Clement the Eighth and many 
cardinals creep up the holy stairs, and with the fair 
city of Naples and the kingdom's nobility; and 
passing through the north he came into Styria, to the 
Court of Archduke Ferdinand; and, introduced by 
an Englishman and an Irish Jesuit to the notice of 
Baron Kisell, general of artillery, he obtained em- 
ployment, and went to Vienna with Colonel Voldo, 
Earl of Meldritch, with whose regiment he was to 
serve. 

He was now on the threshold of his long desired 
campaign against the Turks. The arrival on the 
scene of this young man, who was scarcely out of 
his teens, was a shadow of disaster to the Turks. 
,They had been carrying all before them. Rudolph 
II., Emperor of Germany, was a weak and irresolute 
character, and no match for the enterprising Sultan, 
Mahomet III., who was then conducting the inva- 
sion of Europe. The Emperor's brother, the Arch- 
duke Mathias, who was to succeed him, and Ferdi- 
nand, Duke of Styria, also to become Emperor of 
Germany, were much abler men, and maintained a 
good front against the Moslems in Lower Hungary, 
but the Turks all the time steadily advanced. They 
had long occupied Buda (Pesth), and had been in 



12 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 22 

possession of the stronghold of Alba Regalis for 
some sixty years. Before Smith's advent they had 
captured the important city of Caniza, and just as 
he reached the ground they had besieged the town 
of Oliimpag/i, with two thousand men. But the ad- 
dition to the armies of Germany, France, Styria, and 
Hungary of John Smith, " this English gentleman," 
as he styles himself, put a new face on the war, and 
proved the ruin of the Turkish cause. The Bashaw 
of Buda was soon to feel the effect of this re-enforce- 
ment. 

Caniza is a town in Lower Hungary, north of the 
River Drave, and just west of the Platen Sea, or Lake 
Balatin, as it is also called. Due north of Can- 
iza a few miles, on a bend of the little River Raab 
(which empties into the Danube), and south of the 
town of Kerment, lay Smith's town of Olumpagh, 
which we are able to identify on a map of the 
period * as Olimacum or Oberlymback. In this 
strong town the Turks had shut up the garrison 
under command of Gov. Ebersbraught so closely 
that it was without intelligence or hope of succor. 

In this strait, the ingenious John Smith, who was 
present in the retonnoitering army in the regiment 
of the Earl of Meldritch, came to the aid of Baron 
Kisell, the general of artillery, with a plan of com- 
munication with the besieged garrison. Fortunately 
Smith had made the acquaintance of Lord Ebers- 
braught at Gratza, in Styria, and had (he says) com- 
municated to him a system of signaling a message 
by the use of torches. Smith seems to have elab- 
orated this method of signals, and providentially 
explained it to Lord Ebersbraught, as if he had a 

* The " Theatium Orbis Terrarum of Abrahamus Ortelius," 
Antwerp, 1579. 



i6oi] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 1 3 

presentiment of the latter's use of it. He divided 
the alphabet into two parts, from A to L and from 
M to Z. Letters were indicated and words spelled 
by the means of torches: '' The first part, from A to 
L, is signified by showing and holding one linke so 
oft as there is letters from A to that letter you name; 
the other part, from M to Z, is mentioned by two 
lights in like manner. The end of a word is signi- 
fien by showing of three lights." 

Gen. Kisell, inflamed by this strange invention, 
which Smith made plain to him, furnished him 
guides, who conducted him to a high mountain, 
seven miles distant from the town, where he flashed 
his torches and got a reply from the governor. 
Smith signaled that they would charge on the east 
of the town in the night, and at the alarum Ebers- 
braught was to sally forth. Gen. Kisell doubted 
that he should be able to relieve the town by this 
means, as he had only ten thousand men; but Smith, 
whose fertile brain was now in full action, and who 
seems to have assumed charge of the campaign, hit 
upon a stratagem for the diversion and confusion of 
the Turks. 

On the side of the town opposite the proposed 
point of attack lay the plain of Hysnaburg (Eisna- 
burg on Ontelius's map). Smith fastened two or 
three charred pieces of match to divers small lines 
of an hundred fathoms in length, armed with pow- 
der. Each line was tied to a stake at each end. 
After dusk these lines were set up on the plain, and 
being fired at the instant the alarm was given, they 
seemed to the Turks like so many rows of musket- 
eers. While the Turks therefore prepared to repel 
a great army from that side, Kisell attacked with his 
ten thousand men, Ebersbraught sallied out and fell 



14 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 22 

upon the Turks in the trenches, all the enemy on 
that side were slain or drowned, or put to flight. 
And while the Turks were busy routing Smith's 
sham musketeers, the Christians threw a couple of 
thousand troops into the town. Whereupon the 
Turks broke up the siege and retired to Caniza. 
For this exploit Gen. Kisell received great honor at 
Kerment, and Smith was rewarded with the rank of 
captain, and the command of two hundred and fifty 
horsemen. From this time our hero must figure as 
Capt. John Smith. The rank is not high, but he 
has made the title great, just as he has made the 
name of John Smith unique. 

After this there were rumors of peace for these 
tormented countries; but the Turks, who did not yet 
appreciate the nature of this force, called John Smith, 
that had come into the world against them, did not 
intend peace, but went on levying soldiers and 
launching them into Hungary. To oppose these 
fresh invasions, Rudolph II., aided by the Christian 
princes, organized three armies: one led by the 
Archduke Mathias and his lieutenant, Duke Mer- 
cury, to defend Low Hungary; the second led by 
Ferdinand, the Archduke of Styria, and the Duke 
of Mantua, his lieutenant, to regain Caniza; the 
third by Gonzago, Governor of High Hungary, to 
join with Georgio Busca, to make an absolute con- 
quest of Transylvania. 

In pursuance of this plan, Duke Mercury, with an 
army of thirty thousand, whereof nearly ten thou- 
sand were French, besieged Stowell-Wesenburg, 
otherwise called Alba Regalis, a place so strong by 
art and nature that it was thought impregnable. 

This stronghold, situated on the north-east of the 
Platen Sea, was, like Caniza and Oberlympack, one 



i6oi] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 15 

of the Turkish advanced posts, by means of which 
they pushed forward their operations from Buda on 
the Danube. 

This noble friend of Smith, the Duke of Mercury, 
whom Haylyn styles Duke Mercurio, seems to have 
puzzled the biographers of Smith. In fact, the 
name of "Mercury" has given a mythological air 
to Smith's narration and aided to transfer it to the 
region of romance. He was, however, as we have 
seen, identical with a historical character of some 
importance, for the services he rendered to the 
Church of Rome, and a commander of some con- 
siderable skill. He is no other than Philip de Lor- 
raine, Due de Mercoeur.^ 

At the siege of Alba Regalis, the Turks gained 
several successes by night sallies, and, as usual, it 
was not till Smith came to the front with one of his 
ingenious devices that the fortune of war changed. 
The Earl Meldritch, in whose regiment Smith 
served, having heard from some Christians who es- 
caped from the town at what place there were the 
greatest assemblies and throngs of people in the 
city, caused Capt. Smith to put in practice his 
"fiery dragons." These instruments of destruction 
are carefully described: " Having prepared fortie or 
fiftie round-bellied earthen pots, and filled them 
with hand Gunpowder, then covered them with 
Pitch, mingled with Brimstone and Turpentine, and 
quartering as many Musket-bullets, that hung to- 
gether but only at the center of the division, stucke 

* So far as I know, Dr. Edward Eggleston was the first to 
identify him. There is a sketch of him in the " Biographic 
Universelle," and a life with an account of his exploits in Hun- 
gary, entitled " Histoire de Due Mercoeur, par Bruseles de 
Montplain Champs, Cologne, 1689-97. 



1 6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 22 

them round in the mixture about the pots, and cov- 
ered them againe with the same mixture, over that 
a strong sear-cloth, then over all a goode thicknesse 
of Towze-match, well tempered with oyle of Lin- 
seed, Campheer, and powder of Brimstone, these he 
fitly placed in slings, graduated so neere as they 
could to the places of these assemblies." 

These missiles of Smith's invention were flung at 
midnight, when the alarum was given, and " it was a 
perfect sight to see the short flaming course of their 
flight in the air, but presently after their fall, the 
lamentable noise of the miserable slaughtered 
Turkes was most wonderful to heare." 

While Smith was amusing the Turks in this man- 
ner, the Earl Rosworme planned an attack on the 
opposite suburb, which was defended by a muddy 
lake, supposed to be impassable. Furnishing his 
men with bundles of sedge, which they threw before 
them as they advanced in the dark night, the lake 
was made passable, the suburb surprised, and the 
captured guns of the Turks were turned upon them 
in the city to which they had retreated. The arm.y 
of the Bashaw was cut to pieces and he himself cap- 
tured. 

The Earl of Meldritch, having occupied the town, 
repaired the walls and the ruins of this famous city 
that had been in the possession of the Turks for 
some threescore years. 

It is not our purpose to attempt to trace the me- 
teoric course of Capt. Smith in all his campaigns 
against the Turks, only to indicate the large part he 
took in these famous wars for the possession of 
Eastern Europe. The siege of Alba Regalis must 
have been about the year 1601 — Smith never trou- 
bles himself with any dates— and while it was unde- 



i6oi] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 1 7 

cided, Mahomet III. — this was the prompt Sultan 
who made his position secure by putting to death 
nineteen of his brothers upon his accession — raised 
sixty thousand troops for its relief or its recovery. 
The Due de Mercoeur went out to meet this army, 
and encountered it in the plains of Girke. In the 
first skirmishes the Earl Meldritch was very nearly 
cut off, although he made " his valour shine more 
bright than his armour, which seemed then painted 
with Turkish blood." Smith himself was sore 
wounded and had his horse slain under him. The 
campaign, at first favorable to the Turks, was incon- 
clusive, and towards winter the Bashaw retired to 
Buda. The Due de Mercoeur then divided his 
army. The Earl of Rosworme was sent to assist 
the Archduke Ferdinand, who was besieging Can- 
iza; the Earl of Meldritch, with six thousand men, 
was sent to assist Georgio Busca against the Tran- 
sylvanians; and the Due de Mercoeur set out for 
France to raise new forces. On his way he received 
great honor at Vienna, and staying overnight at 
Nuremberg, he was royally entertained by the 
Archdukes Mathias and Maximilian. The next 
morning after the feast — how it chanced is not 
known — he was found dead. His brother-in-law 
died two days afterwards, and the hearts of both, 
with much sorrow, were carried into France. 

We now come to the most important event in the 
life of Smith before he became an adventurer in Vir- 
ginia, an event which shows Smith's readiness to 
put in practice the chivalry which had in the old 
chronicles influenced his boyish imagination; and we 
approach it with the satisfaction of knowing that it 
loses nothing in Smith's narration. 

It must be mentioned that Transylvania, which 



1 8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [JEl 22 

the Earl of Meldritch, accompanied by Capt. Smith, 
set out to relieve, had long been in a disturbed con- 
dition, owing to internal dissensions, of v/hich the 
Turks took advantage. Transylvania, in fact, was a 
Turkish dependence, and it gives us an idea of the 
far reach of the Moslem influence in Europe, that 
Stephen VI., vaivode of Transylvania, was, on the 
commendation of Sultan Armurath III., chosen King 
of Poland. 

To go a little further back than the period of 
Smith's arrival, John II. of Transylvania was a 
champion of the Turk, and an enemy of Ferdinand 
and his successors. His successor, Stephen VI., sur- 
named Battori, or Bathor, was made vaivode by the 
Turks, and afterwards, as we have said. King of 
Poland. He was succeeded in 1575 by his brother 
Christopher Battori, who was the first to drop the 
title of vaivode and assume that of Prince of Transyl- 
vania. The son of Christopher, Sigismund Battori, 
shook off the Turkish bondage, defeated many of 
their armies, slew some of their pashas, and gained 
the title of the Scanderbeg of the times in which he 
lived. Not able to hold out, however, against so 
potent an adversary, he resigned his estate to the 
Emperor Rudolph II., and received in exchange the 
dukedoms of Oppelon and Ratibor in Silesia, with 
an annual pension of fifty thousand Joachims. The 
pension not being well paid, Sigismund made an- 
other resignation of his principality to his cousin 
Andrew Battori, who had the ill luck to be slain 
within the year by the vaivode of Valentia. There- 
upon Rudolph, Emperor and King of Hungary, was 
acknowledged Prince of Transylvania. But the 
Transylvania soldiers did not take kindly to a for- 
eign prince, and behaved so unsoldierly that Sigis- 



i6o2] FIGHThYG IN HUNGARY. IQ 

mund was called back. But he was unable to settle 
himself in his dominions, and the second time he left 
his country in the power of Rudolph and retired 
to Prague, where, in 1615, he died unlamented. 

It was during this last effort of Sigismund to re- 
gain his position that the Earl of Meldritch, accom- 
panied by Smith, went to Transylvania, with the 
intention of assisting Georgio Busca, who was the 
commander of the Emperor's party. But finding 
Prince Sigismund in possession of the most terri- 
tory and of the hearts of the people, the earl thought 
it best to assist the prince against the Turk, rather 
than Busca against the prince. Especially was he 
inclined to that side by the offer of free liberty of 
Dooty for his worn and unpaid troops, of what they 
could get possession of from the Turks. 

This last consideration no doubt persuaded the 
troops that Sigismund had " so honest a cause." 
The earl was born in Transylvania, and the Turks 
were then in possession of his father's country. In 
this distracted state of the land, the frontiers had 
garrisons among the mountains, some of which 
held for the emperor, some for the prince, and some 
for the Turk. The earl asked leave of the prince to 
make an attempt to regain his paternal estate. The 
prince, glad of such an ally, made him camp-master 
of his army, and gave him leave to plunder the 
Turks. Accordingly the earl began to make incur- 
sions of the frontiers into what Smith calls the Land 
of Zarkam — among rocky mountains, where were 
some Turks, some Tartars, but most Brandittoes, 
Renegadoes, and such like, which he forced into the 
Plains of Regall, where was a city of men and fortifi- 
cations, strong in itself, and so environed with moun- 
tains that it had been impregnable in all these wars. 



20 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [vEt. 23 

It must be confessed that the historians and the 
map-makers did not always attach the importance 
that Smith did to the battles in which he was con- 
spicuous, and we do not find the Land of Zarkam or 
the city of Regall in the contemporary chronicles or 
atlases. But the region is sufficiently identified. 
On the River Maruch, or Morusus, was the town of 
Alba Julia, or Weisenberg, the residence of the vai- 
vode or Prince of Transylvania. South of this cap- 
ital was the town Millenberg, and southwest of this 
was a very strong fortress, commanding a narrow 
pass leading into Transylvania out of Hungary, 
probably where the River Maruch broke through the 
mountains. We infer that it was this pass that the 
earl captured by a stratagem, and carrying his army 
through it, began the siege of Regall in the plain. 
" The earth no sooner put on her green habit," says 
our knight-errant, " than the earl overspread her 
with his troops." Regall occupied a strong fortress 
on a promontory, and the Christians encamped on 
the plain before it. 

In the conduct of this campaign, we pass at once 
into the age of chivalry, about which Smith had 
read so much. We cannot but recognize that this 
is his opportunity. His idle boyhood had been 
soaked in old romances, and he had set out in his 
youth to do what equally dreamy but less venture- 
some devourers of old chronicles were content to 
read about. Everything arranged itself as Smith 
would have had it. When the Christian army ar- 
rived, the Turks sallied out and gave it a lively wel- 
come, which cost each side about fifteen hundred 
men. Meldritch had but eight thousand soldiers, 
but he was re-enforced by the arrival of nine thou- 
sand more, with six-and-twenty pieces of ordnance, 



i6o2] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 21 

under Lord Zachel Moyses, the general of the army 
who took command of the whole. 

After the first skirmish the Turks remained within 
their fortress, the guns of which commanded the 
plain, and the Christians spent a month in intrench- 
ing themselves and mounting their guns. 

The Turks, who taught Europe the art of civ- 
ilized war, behaved all this time in a courtly and 
chivalric manner, exchanging with the besiegers 
wordy compliments until such time as the latter 
were ready to begin. The Turks derided the slow 
progress of the works, inquired if their ordnance 
was in pawn, twitted them with growing fat for 
want of exercise, and expressed the fear that the 
Christians should depart without making an as- 
sault. 

In order to make the time pass pleasantly, and 
exactly in accordance with the tales of chivalry 
which Smith had read, the Turkish Bashaw in the 
fortress sent out his challenge: " That to delight the 
ladies, who did long to see some court-like pastime, 
the Lord Tubashaw did defy any captaine that had 
the command of a company, who durst combat with 
him for his head." 

This handsome offer to swap heads was accepted; 
lots were cast for the honor of meeting the lord, 
and, fortunately for us, the choice fell upon an 
ardent fighter of twenty-three years, named Captain 
John Smith. Nothing was wanting to give dignity 
to the spectacle. Truce was made; the ramparts of 
this fortress-city in the mountains (which we cannot 
find on the map) were " all beset with faire Dames 
and men in Armes;" the Christians were drawn up 
in battle array; and upon the theater thus prepared 
the Turkish Bashaw, armed and mounted, entered 



22 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 23 

with a flourish of hautboys; on his shoulders were 
fixed a pair of great wings, compacted of eagles' 
feathers within a ridge of silver richly garnished 
with gold and precious stones; before him was a 
janissary bearing his lance, and a janissary walked 
at each side leading his steed. 

This gorgeous being Smith did not keep long 
waiting. Riding into the field with a flourish of 
trumpets, and only a simple page to bear his lance, 
Smith favored the Bashaw with a courteous salute, 
took position, charged at the signal, and before the 
Bashaw could say "Jack Robinson," thrust his lance 
through the sight of his beaver, face, head and all, 
threw him dead to the ground, alighted, unbraced 
his helmet, and cut off his head. The whole affair 
was over so suddenly that as a pastime for ladies it 
must have been disappointing. The Turks came 
out and took the headless trunk, and Smith, accord- 
ing to the terms of the challenge, appropriated the 
head and presented it to General Moyses. 

This ceremonious but still hasty procedure ex- 
cited the rage of one Grualgo, the friend of the 
Bashaw, who sent a particular challenge to Smith 
to regain his friend's head or lose his own, together 
with his horse and armor. Our hero varied the 
combat this time. The two combatants shivered 
lances and then took to pistols; Smith received a 
mark upon the " placard," but so wounded the Turk 
in his left arm that he was unable to rule his horse. 
Smith then unhorsed him, cut off his head, took 
possession of head, horse, and armor, but returned 
the rich apparel and the body to his friends in the 
most gentlemanly manner. 

Captain Smith was perhaps too serious a knight 
to see the humor of these encounters, but he does 



i6o2] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 2? 

not lack humor in describing them, and he adopted 
easily the witty courtesies of the code he was illus- 
trating. After he had gathered two heads, and the 
siege still dragged, he became in turn the challenger, 
in phrase as courteously and grimly facetious as 
was permissible, thus: 

" To delude time. Smith, w;ith so many incontra- 
dictible perswading reasons, obtained leave that the 
Ladies might know he was not so much enamored 
of their servants' heads, but if any Turke of their 
ranke would come to the place of combat to redeem 
them, should have also his, upon like conditions, if 
he could winne it." 

This considerate invitation was accepted by a 
person whom Smith, with his usual contempt for 
names, calls " Bonny Mulgro." It seems difficult to 
immortalize such an appellation, and it is a pity 
that we have not the real one of the third Turk 
whom Smith honored by killing. But Bonny Mul- 
gro, as we must call the worthiest foe that Smith's 
prowess encountered, appeared upon the field. 
Smith understands working up a narration, and 
makes this combat long and doubtful. The chal- 
lenged party, who had the choice of weapons, had 
marked the destructiveness of his opponent's lance, 
and elected, therefore, to fight with pistols and bat- 
tle-axes. The pistols proved harmless, and then the 
battle-axes came in play, whose piercing bills made 
sometime the one, sometime the other, to have scarce 
sense to keep their saddles. Smith received such a 
blow that he lost his battle-axe, whereat the Turks 
on the ramparts set up a great shout. " The Turk 
prosecuted his advantage to the utmost of his power; 
yet the other, what by the readiness of his horse, 
and his judgment and dexterity in such a business, 



H CAPTAIN JOHN SAIITH. [^t. 23 

beyond all men's expectations, by God's assistance, 
not only avoided the Turke's violence, but having 
drawn his Faulchion, pierced the Turke so under the 
Culets throrow backe and body, that although he 
alighted from his horse, he stood not long ere he 
lost his head, as the rest had done." 

There is nothing better than this in all the tales 
of chivalry, and John Smith's depreciation of his 
inability to equal Csesar in describing his own ex- 
ploits, in his dedicatory letter to the Duchess of 
Richmond, must be taken as an excess of modesty. 
We are prepared to hear that these beheadings gave 
such encouragement to the whole army that six 
thousand soldiers, with three led horses, each pre- 
ceded by a soldier bearing a Turk's head on a lance, 
turned out as a guard to Smith and conducted him 
to the pavilion of the general, to whom he presented 
his trophies. General Moyses (occasionally Smith 
calls him Moses) took him in his arms and embraced 
him with much respect, and gave him a fair horse, 
richly furnished, a scimeter, and a belt worth three 
hundred ducats. And his colonel advanced him to 
the position of sergeant-major of his regiment. If 
any detail was wanting to round out and reward 
this knightly performance in strict accord with the 
old romances, it was supplied by the subsequent 
handsome conduct of Prince Sigismund, 

When the Christians had mounted their guns and 
made a couple of breaches in the walls of Regall, 
General Moyses ordered an attack one dark night 
''by the light that proceeded from the murdering 
muskets and peace-making cannon." The enemy 
were thus awaited, " whilst their slothful governor 
lay in a castle on top of a high mountain, and like 
a valiant prince asketh what's the matter, when 



i6o2] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 2$ 

horrour and death stood amazed at each other, to 
see who should prevail to make him victorious." 
These descriptions show that Smith could handle 
the pen as well as the battle-axe, and distinguish 
him from the more vulgar fighters of his time. The 
assault succeeded, but at great cost of life. The 
Turks sent a flag of truce and desired a " composi- 
tion," but the earl, remembering the death of his 
father, continued to batter the town, and when he 
took it put all the men in arms to the sword, and 
then set their heads upon stakes along the walls, the 
Turks having ornamented the walls with Christian 
heads when they captured the fortress. Although 
the town afforded much pillage, the loss of so many 
troops so mixed the sour with the sweet that Gen- 
eral Moyses could only allay his grief by sacking 
three other towns, Veratis, Solmos, and Kapronka. 
Taking from these a couple of thousand prisoners, 
mostly women and children, Earl Moyses marched 
north to Weisenberg (Alba Julia), and camped near 
the palace of Prince Sigismund. 

When Sigismund Battori came out to view his 
army he was made acquainted with the signal ser- 
vices of Smith at '' Olumpagh, Stowell- Weisenberg, 
and Regall," and rewarded him by conferring upon 
him, according to the law of arms, a shield of arms 
with "three Turks' heads," This was granted by a 
letter-patent, in Latin, which is dated at " Lipswick, 
in Misenland, December 9, 1603." It recites that 
Smith was taken captive by the Turks in Wallachia 
November 18, 1602; that he escaped and rejoined 
his fellow-soldiers. This patent, therefore, was not 
given at Alba Julia, nor until Prince Sigismund had 
finally left his country, and when the Emperor was, 
in fact, the Prince of Transylvania. Sigismund 



26 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 23 

Styles himself, by the grace of God, Duke of Tran- 
sylvania, etc. Appended to this patent, as published 
in Smith's " True Travels," is a certificate by Will- 
iam Segar, knight of the garter and principal king 
of arms of England, that he had seen this patent 
and had recorded a copy of it in the office of the 
Herald of Armes. This certificate is dated August 
19, 1625, the year after the publication of the " Gen- 
eral Historic." 

Smith says that Prince Sigismund also gave him 
his picture in gold, and granted him an annual pen- 
sion of tliree hundred ducats. This promise of a 
pension was perhaps the most unsubstantial portion 
of his reward, for Sigismund himself became a pen- 
sioner shortly after the events last narrated. 

The last mention of Sigismund by Smith is after 
his escape from captivity in Tartaria, when this 
mirror of virtues had abdicated. Smith visited him 
at "Lipswicke in Misenland," and the Prince "gave 
him his Passe, intimating the service he had done, 
and the honors he had received, with fifteen hun- 
dred ducats of gold to repair his losses," The 
''Passe" was doubtless the "Patent" before intro- 
duced, and we hear no word of the annual pension. 

Affairs in Transylvania did not mend even after 
the capture of Rcgall and of the three Turks' heads, 
and the destruction of so many villages. This fruitful 
and strong country was the prey of faction, and be- 
came little better than a desert under the ravages 
of the contending armies. The Emperor Rudolph 
at last determined to conquer the country for him- 
self, and sent Busca again with a large army. Sig- 
ismund finding himself poorly supported, treated 
again with the Emperor and agreed to retire to 
Silicia on a pension. But the Earl Moyses, seeing 



i6o2] FIGHTING IN HUNGARY. 2y 

no prospect of regaining his patrimony, and deter- 
mining not to be under subjection to the Ger- 
mans, led his troops against Busca, was defeated, 
and fled to join the Turks. Upon this desertion 
the Prince delivered up all he had to Busca and 
retired to Prague. Smith himself continued with 
the imperial party, in the regiment of Earl Meld- 
ritch. About this time the Sultan sent one Jeremy 
to be vaivode of Wallachia, whose tyranny caused 
the people to rise against him, and he fled into 
Moldavia. Busca proclaimed Lord RodoU vaivode 
in his stead. But Jeremy assembled an army of 
forty thousand Turks, Tartars and Moldavians, and 
retired into Wallachia. . Smith took active part in 
Rodoll's campaign to recover Wallachia, and nar- 
rates the savage war that ensued. When the armies 
were encamped near each other at Razaand Argish, 
Rodoll cut off the heads of parties he captured 
going to the Turkish camp, and threw them into 
the enemy's trenches. Jeremy retorted by skinning 
alive the Christian parties he captured, hung their 
skins upon poles, and their carcasses and heads on 
stakes by them. In the first battle Rodoll was suc- 
cessful and established himself in Wallachia, but 
Jeremy rallied and began ravaging the country. 
Earl Meldritch was sent against him, but the Turks' 
force was much superior, and the Christians were 
caught in a trap. In order to reach Rodoll, who was 
at Rottenton, Meldritch with his small army was 
obliged to cut his way through the solid body of 
the enemy. A device of Smith's assisted him. He 
covered two or three hundred trunks — probably 
small branches of trees — with wild-fire. These 
fixed upon the heads of lances and set on fire when 
the troops charged in the night, so terrified the 



28 > CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 23 

horserj of the Turks that they fled in dismay. 
Meldiitch was for a moment victorious, but when 
within three leagues of Rottenton he was over- 
powered by forty thousand Turks, and the last des- 
perate fight followed, in which nearly all the friends 
of the Prince were slain, and Smith himself was 
left for dead on the field. 

On this bloody field over thirty thousand lay 
headless, armless, legless, all cut and mangled, who 
gave knowledge to the world how dear the Turk 
paid for his conquest of Transylvania and Walla- 
chia — a conquest that might have been averted if 
the three Christian armies had been joined against 
the ''cruel devouring Turk." Among the slain 
were many Englishmen, adventurers like the valiant 
Captain whom Smith names, men who "left there 
their bodies in testimony of their minds." And 
there, " Smith among the slaughtered dead bodies, 
and many a gasping soule with toils and wounds 
lay groaning among the rest, till being found by 
the Pillagers he was able to live, and perceiving by 
his armor and habit, his ransome might be better 
than his death, they led him prisoner with many 
others." The captives were taken to Axopolis and 
all sold as slaves. Smith was bought by Bashaw 
Bogall, who forwarded him by way of Adrianople 
to Constantinople, to be a slave to his mistress. 
So chained by the necks in gangs of twenty they 
marched to the city of Constantine, where Smith 
was delivered over to the mistress of the Bashaw, 
the young Charatza Tragabigzanda, 



CHAPTER III. 

CAPTIVITY AND WANDERING. 

OUR hero never stirs without encountering a ro- 
mantic adventure. Noble ladies nearly always 
take pity on good-looking captains, and Smith was 
far from ill-favored. The charming Charatza de- 
lighted to talk with her slave, for she could speak 
Italian, and would feign hersdf too sick to go to 
the bath, or to accompany the other women when 
they went to weep over the graves, as their custom 
is once a week, in order to stay at home to hear 
from Smith how it was that Bogall took him pris- 
oner, as the Bashaw had writen her, and whether 
Smith was a Bohemian lord conquered by the 
Bashaw's own hand, whose ransom could adorn 
her with the glory of her lover's conquests. Great 
must have been her disgust with Bogall when she 
heard that he had not captured this handsome 
prisoner, but had bought him in the slave-market at 
Axopolis. Her compassion for her slave increased, 
and the hero thought he saw in her eyes a tender in- 
terest. But she had no use for such a slave, and 
fearing her mother would sell him, she sent him to 
her brother, the Tymor Bashaw of Nalbrits, in the 
country of Cambria, a province of Tartaria (wher- 
ever that may be). If all had gone on as Smith be- 
lieved the kind lady intended, he might have been 
a great Bashaw and a mighty man in the Ottoman 
Empire, and we might never have heard of Poca- 



30 - CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 24 

hontas. In sending him to her brother, it was her 
intention, for she told him so, that he should only 
sojourn in Nalbrits long enough to learn the lan- 
guage, and what it was to be a Turk, till time made 
her master of herself. Smith himself does not dis- 
sent from this plan to metamorphose him into a 
Turk and the husband of the beautiful Charatza 
Tragabigzanda. He had no doubt that he w^as 
commended to the kindest treatment by her broth- 
er; but Tymor " diverted all this to the worst of 
cruelty." Within an hour of his arrival, he was 
stripped naked, his head and face shaved as smooth 
as his hand, a ring of iron, with a long stake bowed 
like a sickle, riveted to his neck, and he was scantily 
clad in goat's skin. There were many other slaves, 
but Smith being the last, was treated like a dog, 
and made the slave of slaves. 

The geographer is not able to follovv^ Captain 
vSmith to Nalbrits. Perhaps Smith himself would 
have been puzzled to make a map of his own ca- 
reer after he left Varna and passed the Black Sea 
and came through the straits of Niger into the Sea 
Disbacca, by some called the Lake Moetis, and 
then sailed some days up the River Bruapo to Cam- 
bria, and two days more to Nalbrits, where the Ty- 
mor resided. 

Smith wrote his travels in London nearly thirty 
years after, and it is difficult to say how much is 
the result of his own observation and how much he 
appropriated from preceding romances. The Cam- 
brians may have been the Cossacks, but his de- 
scription of their habits and also those of the 
"Crym-Tartars " belongs to the marvels of Mande- 
ville and other wide-eyed travelers. Smith fared 
very badly with the Tymor. The Tymor and his 



i603] CAPTIVITY AND WANDERING. 3 1 

friends ate pillaw; they esteemed "samboyses" and 
" musselbits " great dainties, " and yet," exclaims 
Smith, " but round pies, full of all sorts of flesh 
they can get, chopped with variety of herbs." 
Their best drink was '' coffa " and sherbet, which 
is only honey and water. The common victual of 
the others was the entrails of horses and " ulgries" 
(goats ?) cut up and boiled in a caldron with 
" cuskus," a preparation made from grain. This 
was served in great bowls set in the ground, and 
when the other prisoners had raked it thoroughly 
with their foul fists the remainder was given to the 
Christians. The same dish of entrails used to be 
served not many years ago in Upper Egypt as a 
ro3^al dish to entertain a distinguised guest. 

It might entertain but it would too long detain 
us to repeat Smith's information, probably all 
second-hand, about this barbarous region. We 
must confine ourselves to the fortunes of our hero. 
All his hope of deliverance from thraldom was in 
the love of Tragabigzanda, whom he firmly be- 
lieved was ignorant of his bad usage. But she 
made no sign. Providence at length opened a w^ay 
for his escape. He was employed in thrashing in 
a field more than a league from the Tymor's home. 
The Bashaw used to come to visit his slave there, 
and beat, spurn, and revile him. One day Smith, 
unable to control himself under these insults, 
rushed upon the Tymor, and beat out his brains 
with a thrashing bat — " for they have no flails," he 
explains — put on the dead man's clothes, hid the 
body in the straw, filled a knapsack with corn, 
mounted his horse and rode away into the un- 
known desert, where he wandered many days be- 
fore he found a way out. If we may believe Smith 



32 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 24 

this wilderness was more civilized in one respect 
than some parts of our own land, for on all the 
crossings of the roads were guide-boards. After 
traveling sixteen days on the road that leads to 
Muscova, Smith reached a Muscovite garrison on 
the River Don. The governor knocked off the iron 
from his neck and used him so kindly that he 
thought himself now risen from the dead. With 
his usual good fortune there was a lady to take in- 
terest in him — " the good Lady Callamata largely 
supplied all his wants." 

After Smith had his purse filled by Sigismund he 
made a thorough tour of Europe, and passed into 
Spain, where being satisfied, as he says, with Eu- 
rope and Asia, and understanding that there were 
wars in Barbary, this restless adventurer passed on 
into Morocco with several comrades on a French 
man-of-war. His observations on and tales about 
North Africa are so evidently taken from the books 
of other travelers that they add little to our knowl- 
edge of his career. For some reason he found no 
fighting going on worth his while. But good for- 
tune attended his return. He sailed in a man-of- 
war with Captain Merham. They made a few un- 
important captures, and at length fell in with two 
Spanish men-of-war, which gave Smith the sort of 
entertainment he most coveted. A sort of running 
fight, sometimes at close quarters, and with many 
boardings and repulses, lasted for a couple of days 
and nights, when having battered each other thor- 
oughly and lost many men, the pirates of both 
nations separated and went cruising, no doubt, for 
more profitable game. Our wanderer returned to 
his native land, seasoned and disciplined for the 
part he was to play in the New World. As Smith 



i6o5] CAPTIVITY AND WANDERING. 33 

had traveled all over Europe and sojourned in Mo- 
rocco, besides sailing the high seas, since he visited 
Prince Sigismund in December, 1603, it was proba- 
bly in the year 1605 that he reached England. He 
had arrived at the manly age of twenty-six years, 
and was ready to play a man's part in the wonderful 
drama of discovery and adventure upon which the 
Britons were then engaged. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 

JOHN SMITH has not chosen to tell us anything 
of his life during the interim — perhaps not more 
than a year and a half — between his return from 
Morocco and his setting sail for Virginia. Nor do 
his contemporaries throw any light upon this period 
of his life. 

One would like to know whether he wept down 
to Willoughby and had a reckoning with his guard- 
ians; whether he found any relations or friends of 
his boyhood; whether any portion of his estate re- 
mained of that "competent means" which he says 
he inherited, but which does not seem to have been 
available in his career. From the time when he set 
out for France in his fifteenth year, with the excep- 
tion of a short sojourn in Willoughby seven or eight 
years after, he lived by his wits and by the strong 
hand. His purse was now and then replenished by 
a lucky windfall, which enabled him to extend his 
travels and seek more adventures. This is the 
impression that his own story makes upon the 
reader in a narrative that is characterized by the 
boastfulness and exaggeration of the times, and not 
fuller of the marvelous than most others of that 
period. 

The London to which Smith returned was the 
London of Shakespeare. We should be thankful 
for one glimpse of him in this interesting town 



i605] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 35 

Did he frequent the theater ? Did he perhaps see 
Shakespeare himself at the Globe ? Did he loaf 
in the coffee-houses, and spin the fine thread of 
his adventures to the idlers and gallants who re-* 
sorted to them ? If he dropped in at any theater of 
an afternoon he was quite likely to hear some allu- 
sion to Virginia, for the plays of the hour were full 
of chaff, not always of the choicest, about the attrac- 
tions of the Virgin-land, whose gold was as plentiful 
as copper in England; where the prisoners were 
fettered in gold, and the dripping-pans were made 
of it; and where — an unheard-of thing — you might 
become an alderman without having been a scav- 
enger. 

Was Smith an indulger in that new medicine for 
all ills, tobacco ? Alas ! we know nothing of his 
habits or his company. He was a man of piety ac- 
cording to his lights, and it is probable that he may 
have had the then rising prejudice against theaters. 
After his return from Virginia he and his exploits 
were the subject of many a stage play and spectacle, 
but whether his vanity was more flattered by this 
mark of notoriety than his piety was offended we 
do not know. There is certainly no sort of evidence 
that he engaged in the common dissipation of the 
town, nor gave himself up to those pleasures which 
a man rescued from the hardships of captivity in 
Tartaria might be expected to seek. Mr. Stith says 
that it was the testimony of his fellow soldiers and 
adventurers that " they never knew a soldier, before 
him, so free from those military vices of wine, 
tobacco, debts, dice, and oathes." 

But of one thing we may be certain: he was seek- 
ing adventure according to his nature, and eager 
for any heroic employment; and it goes without 



36 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.£1. 26 

saying that he entered into the great excitement of 
the day — adventure in America. Elizabeth was 
dead. James had just come to the throne, and 
Raleigh, to whom Elizabeth had granted an exten- 
sive patent of Virginia, was m the Tower. The 
attempts to make any permanent lodgment in the 
countries of Virginia had failed. But at the date of 
Smith's advent Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold had re- 
turned from a voyage undertaken in 1602 under the 
patronage of the Earl of Southampton, and an- 
nounced that he had discovered a direct passage 
westward to the new continent, all the former 
voyagers having gone by the way of the West Indies. 
The effect of this announcement in London, accom- 
panied as it was with Gosnold's report of the fruit- 
fulness of the coast of New England which he 
explored, was something like that made upon New 
York by the discovery of gold in California in 1849. 
The route by the West Indies, with its incidents of 
disease and delay, was now replaced by the direct 
course opened by Gosnold, and the London Ex- 
change, which has always been quick to scent any 
profit in trade, shared the excitement of the distin- 
guished soldiers and sailors who were ready to em- 
brace any chance of adventure that offered. 

It is said that Capt. Gosnold spent several years 
in vain, after his return, in soliciting his friends and 
acquaintances to join him in settling this fertile 
land he had explored; and that at length he prevailed 
upon Capt. John Smith, Mr. Edward Maria Wing- 
field, the Rev. Mr. Robert Hunt, and others, to join 
him. This is the first appearance of the name of 
Capt. John Smith in connection with Virginia. 
Probably his life in London had been as idle as 
unprofitable, and his purse needed replenishing. 



i6o6l FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 3/ 

Here was a way open to the most honorable, excit- 
ing, and profitable employment. That its mere 
profit would have attracted him we do not believe; 
but its danger, uncertainty, and chance of distinc- 
tion would irresistibly appeal to him. The distinct 
object of the projectors was to establish a colony in 
Virginia. This proved too great an undertaking 
for private persons. After many vain projects the 
scheme was commended to several of the nobility, 
gentry, and merchants, who came into it heartily, 
and the memorable expedition of 1606 was organ- 
ized. 

The patent under which this colonization was 
undertaken was obtained from King James by the 
solicitation of Richard Hakluyt and others. Smith's 
name does not appear in it, nor does that of Gosnold 
nor of Capt. Newport. Richard Hakluyt, then clerk 
prebendary of Westminster, had from the first taken 
great interest in the project. He was chaplain of 
the English colony in Paris when Sir Francis«Drake 
was fitting out his expedition to America, and was 
eager to further it. By his diligent study he became 
the best English geographer of his time; he was the 
historiographer of the East India Company, and 
the best informed man in England concerning the 
races, climates, and productions of all parts of the 
globe. It was at Hakluyt's suggestion that two 
vessels were sent out from Plymouth in 1603 to 
verify Gosnold's report of his new short route. A 
further verification of the feasibility of this route 
was made by Capt. George Weymouth, who was 
sent out in 1605 by the Earl of Southampton. 

The letters-patent of King James, dated April 10, 
1606, licensed the planting of two colonies in the 
territories of America commonly called Virginia. 



38 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 27 

The corporators named in the first colony were 
Sir Thos. Gates, Sir George Somers, knights, and 
Richard Hakluyt and Edward Maria Wingfield, ad- 
venturers, of the city of London. They were per- 
mitted to settle anywhere in territory between the 
34th and 41st degrees of latitude. 

The corporators named in the second colony were 
Thomas Hankam, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, 
and George Popham, representing Bristol, Exeter, 
and Plymouth, and the west counties, who were 
authorized to make a settlement anywhere between 
the 38th and 45th degrees of latitude. 

The letters commended and generously accepted 
this noble work of colonization, " which may, by the 
Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the 
glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of 
Christian religion to such people as yet live in 
darkness and miserable ignorance of all true knowl- 
edge and worship of God, and may in time bring 
the infidels and savages living in those parts to 
human civility and to a settled and quiet govern- 
ment." The conversion of the Indians was as prom- 
inent an object in all these early adventures, English 
or Spanish, as the relief of the Christians has been 
in all the Russian campaigns against the Turks in 
our day. 

Before following the fortunes of this Virginia 
colony of 1606, to which John Smith was attached, 
it is necessary to glance briefly at the previous 
attempt to make settlements in this portion of 
America. 

Although the English had a dlaim upon America, 
based upon the discovery of Newfoundland and of 
the coast of the continent from the 38th to the 68th 
north parallel by Sebastian Cabot in 1497, they took 



1578] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 39 

no further advantage of it than to send out a few- 
fishing vessels, until Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a noted 
and skillful seaman, took out letters-patent for dis- 
covery, bearing date the nth of January, 1578. Gil- 
bert was the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and 
thirteen years his senior. The brothers were asso- 
ciated in the enterprise of 1579, wiiich had for its 
main object the possession of Newfoundland. It is 
commonly said, and in this the biographical diction- 
aries follow one another, that Raleigh accortipanied 
his brother on this voyage of 1579 and went with 
him to Newfoundland. The fact is that Gilbert did 
not reach Newfoundland on that voyage, and it is 
open to doubt if Raleigh started with him. In 
April, 1579, when Gilbert took active steps under 
the charter of 1578, diplomatic difficulties arose, 
growing out of Elizabeth's policy with the Span- 
iards, and when Gilbert's ships were ready to sail 
he was stopped by an order from the council. Little 
is known of this unsuccessful attempt of Gilbert's. 
He did, after many delays, put to sea, and one of 
his contemporaries, John Hooker, the antiquarian, 
says that Raleigh was one of the assured friends 
that accompanied him. But he was shortly after 
driven back, probably from an encounter with the 
Spaniards, and returned with the loss of a tall ship. 
Raleigh had no sooner made good his footing at 
the court of Elizabeth than he joined Sir Humphrey 
in a new adventure. But the Queen peremptorily 
retained Raleigh at court, to prevent his incurring 
the risks of any "dangerous sea-fights." To pre- 
vent Gilbert from embarking on this new voyage 
seems to have been the device of the council rather 
than the Queen, for she assured Gilbert of her good 
wishes, and desired him, on his departure, to give 



40 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1583 

his picture to Raleigh for her, and she contributed 
to the large sums raised to meet expenses "an 
anchor guarded by a lady," which the sailor was to 
wear at his breast. Raleigh risked ^2000 in the 
venture, and equipped a ship which bore his name, 
but which had ill luck. An infectious fever broke 
out among the crew, and the "Ark Raleigh" re- 
turned to Plymouth. Sir Humphrey wrote to his 
brother admiral, Sir George Peckham, indignantly 
of this desertion, the reason for which he did not 
know, and then proceeded on his voyage with his 
four remaining ships. This was on the nth of Jan- 
uary, 1583. The expedition was so far successful 
that Gilbert took formal possession of Newfound- 
land for the Queen. But a fatality attended his 
further explorations: the gallant admiral went 
down at sea in a storm off our coast, with his crew, 
heroic and full of Christian faith to the last, utter- 
ing, it is reported, this courageous consolation to 
his comrades at the last moment: "Be of good 
heart, my friends. We are as near to heaven by 
sea as by land." 

In September, 1583, a surviving ship brought news 
of the disaster to Falmouth. Raleigh was not 
discouraged. Within six months of this loss he 
had on foot another enterprise. His brother's 
patent had expired. On the 25th of March, 1584, 
he obtained from Elizabeth a new charter with 
larger powers, incorporating himself, Adrian Gilbert, 
brother of Sir Humphrey, and John Davys, under 
the title of "The College of the Fellowship for 
the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. ' But 
Raleigh's object was colonization. Within a few 
days after his charter was issued he dispatched two 
captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, who 



1584] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 4I 

in July of that year took possession of the island of 
Roanoke. 

The name of Sir Walter Raleigh is intimately 
associated with Carolina and Virginia, and it is the 
popular impression that he personally assisted in 
the discovery of the one and the settlement of the 
other. But there is no more foundation for the 
belief that he ever visited the territory of Virginia, 
of which he was styled governor, than that he ac- 
companied Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland. 
An allusion by William Strachey, in his " Historic 
of Travaile into Virginia," hastily read, may have 
misled some writers. He speaks of an expedition 
southward, ** to some parts of Chawonock and 
the Mangoangs, to search them there left by Sir 
Walter Raleigh." But his further sketch of the 
various prior expeditions shows that he meant 
to speak of settlers left by Sir Ralph Lane and 
other agents of Raleigh in colonization. Sir Walter 
Raleigh never saw any portion of the coast of the 
United States. In 1592 he planned an attack upon 
the Spanish possessions of Panama, but his plans 
were frustrated. His only personal expedition to 
the New World was that to Guana in 1595. 

The expedition of Capt. Amadas and Capt. Bar- 
low is described by Capt. Smith in his compilation 
called the " General Historic," and by Mr. Strachey. 
They set sail April 27, 1584, from the Thames. On 
the 2d of July they fell with the coast of Florida, 
in shoal water, " where they felt a most delicate 
sweet smell," but saw no land. Presently land ap- 
peared, which they took to be the continent, and 
coasted along to the northward a hundred and 
thirty miles before finding a harbor. Entering the 
first opening, they landed on what proved to be the 



42 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1584 

Island of Roanoke. The landing-place was sandy 
and low, but so productive of grapes or vines over- 
running everything, that the very surge of the sea 
sometimes overflowed them. The tallest and red- 
dest cedars in the world grew there, with pines, 
cypresses, and other trees, and in the woods plenty 
of deer, conies, and fowls in incredible abundance. 

After a few days the natives came off in boats to 
visit them, proper people and civil in their behav- 
ior, bringing with them the King's brother, Granga- 
nameo (Quangimino, says Strachey). The name of 
the King was Winginia, and of the country Win- 
gandacoa. The name of this King might have sug- 
gested that of Virginia as the title of the new pos- 
session, but for the superior claim of the Virgin 
Queen. Granganameo was a friendly savage who 
liked to trade. The first thing he took a fancy to 
was a pewter dish, and he made a hole through it 
and hung it about his neck for a breastplate. The 
liberal Christians sold it to him for the low price of 
twenty deer-skins, worth twenty crowns, and they 
also let him have a copper kettle for fifty skins. 
They drove a lively traffic with the savages for 
much of such " truck," and the chief came on board 
and ate and drank merrily with the strangers. His 
wife and children, short of stature but well-formed 
and bashful, also paid them a visit. She wore a 
long coat of leather, with a piece of leather about 
her loins, around her forehead a band of white coral, 
and from her ears bracelets of pearls of the bigness 
of great peas hung down to her middle. The other 
women wore pendants of copper, as did the chil- 
dren, five or six in an ear. The boats of these sav- 
ages were hollowed trunks of trees. Nothing could 
exceed the kindness and trustfulness the Indians 



1584] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 43 

exhibited towards their visitors. They kept them 
supplied with game and fruits, and when a party 
made an expedition inland to the residence of Gran- 
ganameo, his wife (her husband being absent) came 
running to the river to w^elcome them; took them 
to her house and set them before a great fire; took off 
their clothes and washed them; removed the stock- 
ings of some and washed their feet in warm water; 
set plenty of victual, venison and fish and fruits, 
before them, and took pains to see all things well 
ordered for their comfort. " More love they could 
not express to entertain us." It is noted that these 
savages drank wine while the grape lasted. The 
visitors returned all this kindness with suspicion. 
They insisted upon retiring to their boats at night 
instead of lodging in the house, and the good 
woman, much grieved at their jealousy, sent down 
to them their half-cooked supper, pots and all, and 
mats to cover them from the rain in the night, and 
caused several of her men and thirty w^omen to sit 
all night on the shore over against them. "A more 
kind, loving people cannot be," say the voyagers. 

In September the expedition returned to England, 
taking specimens of the wealth of the country, and 
some of the pearls as big as peas, and two natives, 
Wanchese and Manteo. The " Iprd proprietary" 
obtained the Queen's permission to name the new 
lands " Virginia," in her honor, and he had a new 
seal of his arms cut, with the legend, Pi'opria insig- 
nia Walteri Ralegh^ militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Vir- 
ginia. 

The enticing reports brought back of the fertility 
of this land, and the amiability of its pearl-decked 
inhabitants, determined Raleigh at once to establish 
a colony there, in the hope of the ultimate salvation 



44 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1585 

of the " poor seduced infidell " who wore the pearls. 
A fleet of seven vessels, with one hundred house- 
holders, and many things necessary to begin a new 
state, departed from Plymouth in April, 1585. Sir 
Richard Grenville had command of the expedition, 
and Mr. Ralph Lane was made governor of the col- 
ony, with Philip Amadas for his deputy. Among 
the distinguished men who accompanied them were 
Thomas Hariot, the mathematician, and Thomas 
Cavendish, the naval discoverer. The expedition 
encountered as many fatalities as those that be- 
fell Sir Humphrey Gilbert; and Sir Richard was 
destined also to an early and memorable death.* 
But the new colony suffered more from its own im- 
prudence and want of harmony than from natural 
causes. 

In August, Grenville left Ralph Lane in charge of 
the colony and returned to England, capturing a 
Spanish ship on the way. The colonists pushed dis- 
coveries in various directions, but soon found them- 
selves involved in quarrels with the Indians, whose 
conduct was less friendly than formerly, a change 
partly due to the greed of the whites. In June, 
when Lane was in fear of a conspiracy which he had 
discovered against the life of the colony, and it was 

* Sir Richard Grenville in 1591 was vice-admiral of a fleet, 
under command of Lord Thomas Howard, at the Azores, sent 
against a Spanish Plate-fleet. Six English vessels were sud- 
denly opposed by a Spanish convoy of 53 ships of war. Left 
behind his comrades, in embarking from an island, opposed by 
five galleons, he maintained a terrible fight for fifteen hours, his 
vessel all cut to pieces, and his men nearly all slain. He died 
uttering aloud these words: " Here dies Sir Richard Grenville, 
with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a 
true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, relig- 
ion, and honor." 



1585] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 45 

short of supplies, Sir Francis Drake appeared off 
Roanoke, returning homeward with his fleet from 
the sacking of St. Domingo, Carthagena, and St. 
Augustine. Lane, without waiting for succor from 
England, persuaded Drake to take him and all the 
colony back home. Meantime Raleigh, knowing 
that the colony would probably need aid, was pre- 
paring a fleet of three well-appointed ships to ac- 
company Sir Richard Grenville, and an "advice 
ship," plentifully freighted, to send in advance to 
give intelligence of his coming. Great was Gren- 
ville's chagrin, when he reached Hatorask, to find 
that the advice boat had arrived, and finding no col- 
ony, had departed again for England. However, 
he established fifteen men ("fifty," says the "Gen- 
eral Historic") on the island, provisioned for two 
years, and then returned home. 

Mr. Ralph Lane's colony was splendidly fitted 
out, much better furnished than the one that New- 
port, Wingfield, and Gosnold conducted to the 
River James in 1607; but it needed a man at the 
head of it. If the governor had possessed Smith's 
pluck, he would have held on till the arrival of 
Grenville. 

Lane did not distinguish himself in the conduct 
of this governorship, but he nevertheless gained im- 
mortality.- For he is credited with first bringing 
into England that valuable medicinal weed, called 
tobacco, which Sir Walter Raleigh made fashion- 
able, not in its capacity to drive " rheums " out qf 
the body, but as a soother, when burned in the bowl 
of a pipe and drawn through the stem in smoke, of 
the melancholy spirit. 

The honor of introducing tobacco at this date is 
so large that it has been shared by three persons — 



46 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1585 

Sir Francis Drake, who brought Mr. Lane home; 
Mr. Lane, who carried the precious result of his so- 
journ in America; and Sir Walter Raleigh, who 
commended it to the use of the ladies of Queen 
Elizabeth's court. 

But this was by no means its first appearance in 
Europe. It was already known in Spain, in France, 
and in Italy, and no doubt had begun to make its 
way in the Orient. In the early part of the century 
the Spaniards had discovered its virtues. It is 
stated by John Neander, in his " Tobaco Logia," 
published in Leyden in 1626, that Tobaco took its 
name from a province in Yucatan, conquered by 
Fernando Cortez in 1519. The name Nicotiana he 
derives from D. Johanne Nicotino Nemansensi, of 
the council of Francis II., who first introduced the 
plant into France. At the date of this volume 
(1626) tobacco was in general use all over Europe 
and in the East, Pictures are given of the Persian 
water pipes, and descriptions of the mode of pre- 
paring it for use. There are reports and traditions 
of a very ancient use of tobacco in Persia and in 
China, as well as in India, but we are convinced 
that the substance supposed to be tobacco, and to 
be referred to as such by many writers, and described 
as " intoxicating," was really India hemp, or some 
plant very different from the tobacco of the New 
World. At any rate there is evidence that in the 
Turkish Empire as late as 16 16 tobacco was still 
somewhat a novelty, and the smoking of it was re- 
garded as vile, and a habit only of the low. The 
late Hekekian Bey, foreign minister of old Mahomet 
Ali, possessed an ancient Turkish MS. which related 
an occurrence at Smyrna about the year 1610, name- 
ly, the punishment of some sailors for the use of 



1585] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 47 

tobacco, which showed that it was a novelty and 
accounted a low vice at that time. The testimony 
of the trustworthy George Sandys, an English trav- 
eler into Turkey, Egypt, and Syria in 16 10 (after- 
wards, 162 1, treasurer of the colony in Virginia), is 
to the same effect as given in his " Relation," pub- 
lished in London in 162 1. In his minute descrip- 
tion of the people and manners of Constantinople, 
after speaking of opium, which makes the Turks 
" giddy-headed " and " turbulent dreamers," he says: 
" But perhaps for the self-same cause they delight 
in Tobacco: which they take through reedes that 
have joyned with them great heads of wood to con- 
taine it, I doubt not but lately taught them as 
brought them by the English; and were it not 
sometimes lookt into (for Morat Bassa [Murad III. ?] 
not long since commanded a pipe to be thrust 
through the nose of a Turke, and to be led in deri- 
sion through the Citie), no question but it would 
prove a principall commodity. Nevertheless they 
will take it in corners; and are so ignorant therein, 
that that which in England is not saleable, doth 
passe here among them for most excellent." 

Mr. Stith ("History of Virginia," 1746) gives 
Raleigh credit for the introduction of the pipe into 
good society, but he cautiously says, " We are not 
informed whether the queen made use of it herself: 
but it is certain she gave great countenance to it as 
a vegetable of singular strength and power, which 
might therefore prove of benefit to mankind, and 
advantage to the nation." Mr. Thomas Hariot, in 
his observations on the colony at Roanoke, says 
that the natives esteemed their tobacco, of which 
plenty was found, their "chief physicke." 

It should be noted, as against the claim of Lane, 



48 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1585 

that Stowe in his " Annales " (1615) says: "Tobacco 
was first brought and made known in England by 
Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565, but not 
used by Englishmen in many years after, though at 
this time commonly used by most men and many 
women." In a side-note to the edition of 1631 we 
read: " Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that brought 
tobacco in use, when all men wondered what it 
meant." It was first commended for its medicinal 
virtues. Harrison's " Chronologie," under date of 
1573, says: "In these dales the taking in of the 
smoke of the Indian herbe called ^ Tabaco ' by an 
instrument formed like a little ladell, whereby it 
passeth from the mouth into the hed and stomach, 
is gretlie taken-up and used in England, against 
Rewmes and some other diseases ingendred in the 
longes and inward partes, and not without effect." 
But Barnaby Rich, in "The Honestie of this Age," 
1614, disagrees with Harrison about its benefit: 
" They say it is good for a cold, for a pose, for 
rewmes, for aches, for dropsies, and for all man- 
ner of diseases proceeding of moyst humours; but 
I cannot see but that those that do take it fastest 
are as much (or more) subject to all these infir- 
mities (yea, and to the poxe itself) as those that 
have nothing at all to do with it." He learns that 
7000 shops in London live by the trade of tobacco- 
selling, and calculates that there is paid for it 
;£"399,375 a year, "all spent in smoake." Every 
base groom must have his pipe with his pot of ale; 
it "is vendible in every taverne, inne, and ale-house; 
and as for apothecaries shops, grosers shops, chand- 
lers shops, they are (almost) never without company 
that, from morning till night, are still taking of to- 
bacco." Numbers of houses and shops had no 



1585] FIJiST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 49 

Other trade to live by. The wrath of King James 
was probably never cooled against tobacco, but the 
expression of it was somewhat tempered when he 
perceived what a source of revenue it became. 

The savages of North America gave early evidence 
of the possession of imaginative minds, of rare 
power of invention, and of an amiable desire to 
make satisfactory replies to the inquiries of their 
visitors. They generally told their questioners what 
they wanted to know, if they could ascertain what 
sort of information would please them. If they had 
known the taste of the sixteenth century for the 
marvelous they could not have responded more fitly 
to suit it. They filled Mr. Lane and Mr. Hariot full 
of tales of a wonderful copper mine on the River 
Maratock (Roanoke), where the metal was dipped 
out of the stream in great bowls. The colonists 
had great hopes of this river, which Mr. Hariot 
thought flowed out of the Gulf of Mexico, or very 
near the South Sea. The Indians also conveyed to 
the mind of this sagacious observer the notion that 
they had a very respectably developed religion; that 
they believed in one chief god who existed from all 
eternity, and who made many gods of less degree; 
that for mankind a woman was first created, who 
by one of the gods brought forth children; that they 
believed in the immortality of the soul, and that for 
good works a soul will be conveyed to bliss in the 
tabernacles of the gods, and for bad deeds to poko- 
gusso, a great pit in the furthest- part of the world, 
where the sun sets, and where they burn continual- 
ly. The Indians knew this because two men lately 
dead had revived and come back to tell them of the 
other world. These stories, and many others of 
like kind, the Indians told of themselves, and they 



50 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1587 

further pleased Mr. Harlot by kissing his Bible and 
rubbing It all over their bodies, notwithstanding he 
told them there was no virtue in the material book 
itself, only In its doctrines. We must do Mr. Harlot 
the justice to say, however, that he had some little 
suspicion of the " subtlltle " of the weroances (chiefs) 
and the priests. 

Raleigh was not easily discouraged; he was de- 
termined to plant his colony, and to send relief to 
the handful of men that Grenville had left on 
Roanoke Island. In May, 1587, he sent out three 
ships and a hundred and fifty householders, under 
command of Mr. John White, who was appointed 
Governor of the colony, with twelve assistants as a 
Council, who were incorporated under the name 
of "The Governor and Assistants of the City of 
Ralegh in Virginia," with instructions to change 
their settlement to Chesapeake Bay. The expedi- 
tion found there no one of the colony (whether it 
was fifty or fifteen the writers disagree), nothing 
but the bones of one man where the plantation had 
been; the houses w^ere unhurt, but overgrown with 
weeds, and the fort was defaced. Capt. Stafford, 
with twenty men, went to Croatan to seek the lost 
colonists. He heard that the fifty had been set 
upon by three hundred Indians, and, after a sharp 
skirmish and the loss of one man, had taken boats 
and gone to a small Island near Hatorask, and after- 
wards had departed no one knew whither. 

Mr. White sent a band to take revenge upon the 
Indians who were suspected of their murder through 
treachery, which was guided by Mateo, the friendly 
Indian, who had returned with the expedition from 
England. By a mistake they attacked a friendly 
tribe. In August of this year Mateo was Chris- 



1589-90] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 5 1 

tianized, and baptized under the title of Lord of 
Roanoke and Dassomonpeake, as a reward for his 
fidelity. The same month Elinor, the daughter of 
the Governor, the wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth 
to a daughter, the first white child born in this part 
of the continent, who was named Virginia. 

Before long a dispute arose between the Governor 
and his Council as to the proper person to return to 
England for supplies. White himself was finally 
prevailed upon to go, and he departed, leaving 
about a hundred settlers on one of the islands of 
Hatorask to form a plantation. 

The Spanish invasion and the Armada distracted 
the attention of Europe about this time, and the 
hope of plunder from Spanish vessels was more 
attractive than the colonization of America. It was 
not until 1590 that Raleigh was able to dispatch 
vessels to the relief of the Hatorask colony, and 
then it was too late. White did, indeed, start out 
from Biddeford in April, 1588, with two vessels, but 
the temptation to chase prizes was too strong for 
him, and he went on a cruise of his own, and left 
the colony to its destruction. 

In March, 1589-90, Mr. White was again sent out, 
with three ships, from Plymouth, and reached the 
coast in August. Sailing by Croatan they went to 
Hatorask, where they descried a smoke in the place 
they had left the colony in 1587. Going ashore 
next day, they found no man, nor sign that any had 
been there lately. Preparing to go to Roanoke 
next day, a boat was upset and Capt. Spicer and 
six of the crew were drowned. This accident so 
discouraged the sailors that they could hardly be 
persuaded to enter on the search for the colony. 
At last two boats, with nineteen men, set out for 



$2 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1590 

Hatorask, and landed at that part of Roanoke where 
the colony had been left. When White left the 
colony three years before, the men had talked of 
going fifty miles into the mainland, and had agreed 
to leave some sign of their departure. The search- 
ers found not a man of the colony; their houses 
were taken down, and a strong palisade had been 
built. All about were relics of goods that had been 
buried and dug up again and scattered, and on a 
post was carved the name " Croatan." This sig- 
nal, which was accompanied by no sign of distress, 
gave White hope that he should find his comrades 
at Croatan. But one mischance or another happen- 
ing, his provisions being short, the expedition de- 
cided to run down to the West Indies and " refresh" 
(chiefly with a little Spanish plunder), and return in 
the spring and seek their countrymen; but instead 
they sailed for England and never went to Croatan. 
The men of the abandoned colonies were never 
again heard of. Years after, in 1602, Raleigh bought 
a bark and sent it, under the charge of Samuel 
Mace, a mariner who had been twice to Virginia, to 
go in search of the survivors of White's colony. 
Mace spent a month lounging about the Hatorask' 
coast and trading with the natives, but did not land 
on Croatan, or at any place where the lost colony 
might be expected to be found; but having taken 
on board some sassafras, which at that time brought 
a good price in England, and some other barks 
which were supposed to be valuable, he basely 
shirked the errand on which he was hired to go, and 
took himself and his spicy woods home. 

The " Lost Colony" of White is one of the ro- 
mances of the New World. Governor White no 
doubt had the feelings of a parent, but he did not 



1590-1608] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 53 

allow them to interfere with his more public duties 
to go in search of Spanish prizes. If the lost colony 
had gone to Croatan, it was probable that Ananias 
Dare and his wife, the Governor's daughter, and the 
little Virginia Dare, were with them. But White, 
as we have seen, had such confidence in Providence 
that he left his dear relatives to its care, and made 
no attempt to visit Croatan. 

Stith says that Raleigh sent five several times to 
search for the lost, but the searchers returned with 
only idle reports and frivolous allegations. Tradi- 
tion, however, has been busy with the fate of these 
deserted colonists. One of the unsupported con- 
jectures is that the colonists amalgamated with the 
tribe of Hatteras Indians, and Indian tradition and 
the physical characteristics of the tribe are saidto 
confirm this idea. But the sporadic birth of chil- 
dren with white skins (albinos) among black or 
copper-colored races that have had no intercourse 
with white people, and the occurrence of light hair 
and blue eyes among the native races of America 
and of New Guinea, are facts so well attested that 
no theory of amalgamation can be sustained by such 
rare physical manifestations.* According to Captain 
John Smith, who wrote of Captain Newport's explo- 
rations in 1608, there were no tiding of the waifs, 
for, says Smith, Newport returned " without a lump 
of gold, a certainty of the South Sea, or one of the 
lost company sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh." 

In his voyage of discovery up the Chickahominy, 
Smith seems to have inquired about this lost colony 
of King Paspahegh, for he says, " what he knew of 
the dominions he spared not to acquaint me with, 

* Among these Hatteras Indians Captain Amidas, in 1584, 
saw children with chestnut-colored hair. 



54 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1590-1610 

as of certaine men cloathed at a place called Ocan- 
ahonan, cloathed like me." 

We come somewhat nearer to this matter in the 
" Historic of Travaile into Virginia Britannia," pub- 
lished from the manuscript by the Hakluyt Society 
in 1849, in which it is intimated that seven of these 
deserted colonists were afterwards rescued. Strachey 
is a first-rate authority for what he saw. He ar- 
rived in Virginia in 16 10 and remained there two 
years, as secretary of the colony, and was a man of 
importance. His '^ Historic" was probably written 
between 16 12 and 1616. In the first portion of it, 
which is descriptive of the territory of Virginia, is 
this important passage: "At Peccarecamek and 
Ochanahoen, by the relation of Machumps, the 
people have houses built with stone walls, and one 
story above another, so taught tJicni by those English 
who escaped the slaughter at Roanoke. At what time 
this our colony, under the conduct of Captain New- 
port, landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where the 
people breed up tame turkies about their houses, 
and take apes in the mountains, and where, at Rit- 
anoe, the Weroance Eyanaco preserved seven of the 
English alive — four men., two boys., and one young maid 
(who escaped [that is from Roanoke] and fled up 
the river of Chanoke), to beat his copper, of which 
he hath certain mines at the said Ritanoe, as also at 
Pamawauk are said to be store of salt stones." 

This, it will be observed, is on the testimony of 
Machumps. This pleasing story is not mentioned 
in Captain Newport's "Discoveries" (May, 1607).* 

* "Captain Newport's Discoveries, Virginia. A Relatyon of 
the Discovery of our River, from James Forte into the Maine; 
made by Captain Christopher Newport, and sincerely written 
and observed by a gentleman of the colony." " Archaeologia 
Americana," vol. iv. p. 40. The writer of this interesting " Re- 



1590-1610] FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA. 55 

Machumps, who was the brother of Winganuske, 
one of the many wives of Powhatan, had been in 
England. He was evidently a lively Indian. Strachey 
had heard him repeat the " Indian grace," a sort of 
incantation before meat, at the table of Sir Thomas 
Dale. If he did not differ from his red brothers he 
had a powerful imagination, and was ready to please 
the whites with any sort of a marvelous tale. New- 
port himself does not appear to have seen any of 
the "apes taken in the mountains." If this story is 
to be accepted as true we have to think of Virginia 
Dare as growing up to be a woman of twenty years, 
perhaps as other white maidens have been, Indian- 
ized and the wife of a native. But the story rests 
only upon a romancing Indian. It is possible that 
Strachey knew more of the matter than he relates, 
for in his history he speaks again of those betrayed 
people, " of whose end you shall hereafter read in 
this decade." But the possessed information is lost, 
for it is not found in the remainder of this "decade" 
of his writing, which is imperfect. Another refer- 
ence in Strachey is more obscure than the first. He 
is speaking of the merciful intention of King James 
towards the Virginia savages, and that he does not 
intend to root out the natives as the Spaniards did 
in Hispaniola, but by degrees to change their bar- 
barous nature, and inform them of the true God 
and the way to Salvation, and that his Majesty will 
even spare Powhatan himself. But, he says, it is 
the intention to make " the common people likewise 
to understand, how that his Majesty has been ac- 
quainted that the men, women, and children of the 
first plantation at Roanoke were by practice of 

latyon" is unknown. It will hereafter be referred to as New- 
port's " Relation." 



$6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1590-1610 

Powhatan (he himself persuaded thereunto by his 
priests) miserably slaughtered, without any offense 
given him either by the first planted (who twenty 
and odd years had peaceably lived intermixed with 
those savages, and were out of his territory) or by 
those who are now come to inhabit some parts of 
his distant lands," etc. 

Strachey of course means the second plantation and 
not the first, which, according to the weight of au- 
thority, consisted of only fifteen men and no women. 

In George Percy's Discourse concerning Captain 
Newport's exploration of the River James in 1607 
(printed in Purchas's '' Pilgrims ") is this sentence: 
"At Port Cotage, in our voyage up the river, we 
saw a savage boy, about the age of ten years, which 
had a head of hair of a perfect yellow, and reasonably 
white skin, which is a miracle amongst all savages." 
Mr. Neill, in his " History of the Virginia Com- 
pany," says that this boy " was no doubt the off- 
spring of the colonists left at Roanoke by White, of 
whom four men, two boys, and one young maid 
had been preserved from slaughter by an Indian 
Chief." Under the circumstances, " no doubt" is a 
very strong expression for a historian to use. 

This belief in the sometime survival of the Roa- 
noke colonists, and their amalgamation with the 
Indians, lingered long in colonial gossip. Lawson, 
in his History, published in London in 17 18, men- 
tions a tradition among the Hatteras Indians, " that 
several of their ancestors were white people and 
could talk from a book; the truth of which is con- 
firmed by gray eyes being among these Indians and 
no others." 

But the myth of Virginia Dare stands no chance 
beside that of Pocahontas. 



^ CHAPTER V. 

FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 

THE way was now prepared for the advent of 
Capt. John Smith in Virginia. It is true that 
we cannot give him his own title of its discoverer, 
but the plantation had been practically abandoned, 
all the colonies had ended in disaster, all the gov- 
ernors and captains had lacked the gift of persever- 
ance or had been early drawn into other adventures, 
wholly disposed, in the language of Capt. John 
White, ^' to seek after purchase and spoils," and but 
for the energy and persistence of Capt. Smith the 
expedition of 1606 might have had no better fate. 
It needed a man of tenacious will to hold a colony 
together in one spot long enough to give it root. 
Capt. Smith was that man, and if we find him glory- 
ing in his exploits, and repeating upon single big 
Indians the personal prowess that distinguished him 
in Transylvania and in the mythical Nalbrits, we 
have only to transfer our sympathy from the Turks 
to the Sasquesahanocks if the sense of his heroism 
becomes oppressive. 

Upon the return of Samuel Mace, mariner, who 
was sent out in 1602 to search for White's lost 
colony, all Raleigh's interest in the Virginia colony 
had, by his attainder, escheated to the crown. But 
he never gave up his faith in Virginia: neither the 
failure of nine several expeditions nor twelve 
years' imprisonment shook it. On the eve of his 



58 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 27 

fall he had written, ^^ I sJiall yet live to see it an Eng- 
lish nation:'' and he lived to see his prediction come 
true. 

The first or Virginian colony, chartered with the 
Plymouth colony in April, 1606, was at last organ- 
ized by the appointment of Sir Thomas Smith, the 
chief of Raleigh's assignees, a wealthy London mer- 
chant, who had been ambassador to Persia, and was 
then, or shortly after, governor of the East India 
Company, treasurer and president of the meetings 
of the council in London; and by the assignment of 
the transportation of the colony to Capt. Christo- 
pher Newport, a mariner of experience in voyages 
to the West Indies and in plundering the Spaniards, 
who had the power to appoint different captains 
and mariners, and the sole charge of the voyage. 
No local councilors were named for Virginia, but 
to Capt. Newport, Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, and 
Capt. John Ratcliffe were delivered sealed instruc- 
tions, to be opened within twenty-four hours after 
their arrival in Virginia, wherein would be found the 
names of the persons designated for the Council. 

This colony, which was accompanied by the pray- 
ers and hopes of London, left the Thames December 
19, 1606, in three vessels — the Susan Constant, one 
hundred tons, Capt. Newport, with seventy-one per- 
sons; the God- Speed, forty tons, Capt. Gosnold, with 
fifty-tvv^o persons; and a pinnace of twenty tons, the 
Discovery, Capt. Ratcliffe, with twenty persons. The 
Mercure Francais, Paris, 16 19, says some of the 
passengers were women and children, but there is 
no other mention of women. Of the persons em- 
barked one hundred and five were planters, the rest 
crews. Among the planters were Edward Maria 
Wingfield, Capt. John Smith, Capt. John Martin, 



i6o6] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. $9 

Capt. Gabriel Archer, Capt. George Kendall, Mr. 
Robert Hunt, preacher, and Mr. George Percie, 
brother of the Earl of Northumberland, subse- 
quently governor for a brief period, and one of the 
writers from whom Purchas compiled. Most of 
the planters were shipped as gentlemen, but there 
were four carpenters, twelve laborers, a blacksmith, 
a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, a 
drummer, and a chirurgeon. 

The composition of the colony shows a serious 
purpose of settlement, since the trades were mostly 
represented, but there were too many gentlemen to 
make it a working colony. And, indeed, the gen- 
tlemen, like the promoters of the enterprise in Lon- 
don, were probably more solicitous of discovering 
a passage to the South Sea, as the way to increase 
riches, than of making a state. They were instruct- 
ed to explore every navigable river they might find, 
and to follow the main branches, which would prob- 
ably lead them in one direction to the East Indies 
or South Sea, and in the other to the North-west 
Passage. And they were forcibly reminded that 
the way to prosper was to be of one mind, for their 
own and their country's good. 

This last advice did not last the expedition out of 
sight of land. They sailed from Blackwxll, Decem- 
ber 19, 1606, but were kept six weeks on the coast 
of England by contrary winds. A crew of saints 
cabined in those little caravels and tossed about on 
that coast for six weeks w^ould scarcely keep in 
good humor. Besides, the position of the captains 
and leaders was not yet defined. Factious quarrels 
broke out immediately, and the expedition would 
likely have broken up but for the wise conduct and 
pious exhortations of Mr. Robert Hunt, the preach- 



6o CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 27 

er. This faithful man was so ill and weak that it 
was thought he could not recover, yet notwithstand- 
ing the stormy weather, the factions on board, and 
although his home was almost in sight, only twelve 
miles across the Downs, he refused to quit the ship. 
He was unmoved, says Smith, either by the weather 
or by " the scandalous imputations (of some few 
little better than atheists, of the greatest rank 
amongst us)." With "the water of his patience" 
and " his godly exhortations" he quenched the 
flames of envy and dissension. 

They took the old route by the West Indies. 
George Percy notes that on the 12th of February 
they saw a blazing star, and presently a storm. 
They watered at the Canaries, traded with savages 
at San Domingo, and spent three weeks refreshing 
themselves among the islands. The quarrels re- 
vived before they reached the Canaries, and there 
Capt. Smith was seized and put in close confinement 
for thirteen weeks. 

We get little light from contemporary writers on 
this quarrel. Smith does not mention the arrest in 
his "True Relation," but in his "General Historic," 
writing of the time when they had been six weeks 
in Virginia, he says: " Now Captain Smith who all 
this time from their departure from the Canaries 
was restrained as a prisoner upon the scandalous 
suggestion of some of the chiefs (envying his 
repute) who fancied he intended to usurp the gov- 
ernment, murder the Council, and make himself 
King, that his confederates were dispersed in all 
three ships, and that divers of his confederates that 
revealed it, would affirm it, for this he was commit- 
ted a prisoner; thirteen weeks he remained thus 
suspected, and by that time they should return they 



i6o7] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 6 1 

pretended out of their commiserations, to refer him 
to the Council in England to receive a check, rather 
than by particulating his designs make him so 
odious to the world, as to touch his life, or utterly 
overthrow his reputation. But he so much scorned 
their charity and publically defied the uttermost of 
their cruelty, he wisely prevented their policies, 
though he could not suppress their envies, yet so 
well he demeaned himself in this business, as all the 
company did see his innocency, and his adversaries' 
malice, and those suborned to accuse him accused 
his accusers of subornation; many untruths were 
alleged against him; but being apparently dis- 
proved, begot a general hatred in the hearts of the 
company against such unjust Commanders, that the 
President was adjudged to give him ^200, so that 
all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, 
which Smith presently returned to the store for the 
general use of the colony." 

Neither in Newport's " Relatyon" nor in Mr. 
Wingfield's " Discourse" is the arrest mentioned, 
nor does Strachey speak of it. 

About 1629, Smith, in writing a description of the 
Isle of Mevis (Nevis) in his " Travels and Adven- 
tures," says: " In this little [isle] of Mevis, more than 
twenty years agone, I have remained a good time 
together, to wod and water and refresh my men." It 
is characteristic of Smith's vivid imagination, in re- 
gard to his own exploits, that he should speak of an 
expedition in which he had no command, and was 
even a prisoner, in this style: " I remained," and " my 
men." He goes on: "Such factions here we had as 
commonly attend such voyages, and a pair of gallows 
was made, but Captaine Smith, for whom they were 
intended, could not be persuaded to use them; but 



62 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

not any one of the inventors but their Hves by justice 
fell into his power, to determine of at his pleasure, 
whom with much mercy he favored, that most 
basely and unjustly would have betrayed him." 
And it is true that Smith, although a great ro- 
mancer, was often magnanimous, as vain men are 
apt to be. 

King James's elaborate lack of good sense had 
sent the expedition to sea with the names of the 
Council sealed up in a box, not to be opened till it 
reached its destination. Consequently there was no 
recognized authority. Smith was a young m^n of 
about twenty-eight, vain and no doubt somewhat 
"bumptious," and it is easy to believe that Wing- 
field and the others who felt his superior force and 
realized his experience, honestly suspected him of 
designs against the expedition. He was the ablest 
man on board, and no doubt was aware of it. That 
he was not only a born commander of men, but 
had the interest of the colony at heart, time was to 
show. 

The voyagers disported themselves among the 
luxuries of the West Indies. At Guadaloupe they 
found a bath so hot that they boiled their pork in 
it as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monaca 
they took from the bushes with their hands near 
two hogsheads full of birds in three or four hours. 
These, it is useless to say, were probably not the 
"barnacle geese" which the nautical travelers used 
to find, and picture growing upon bushes and drop- 
ping from the eggs, when they were ripe, full- 
fledged into the water. The beasts were fearless of 
men. Wild birds and natives had to learn the 
whites before they feared them. 

" In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles," says the 



i6o7] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 63 

"General Historic," "we spent some time, where 
with a lothsome beast like a crocodile, called a 
gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and 
fishes, we feasted daily." 

Thence they made sail in search of Virginia, but 
the mariners lost their reckoning for three days and 
made no land; the crews were discomfited, and 
Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up 
helm and return to England. But a violent storm, 
which obliged them " to hull all night," drove them 
to the port desired. On the 26th of April they saw 
a bit of land none of them had ever seen before. 
This the first land they descried, they named Cape 
Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales; as the op- 
posite cape was called Cape Charles, for the Duke 
of York, afterwards Charles I. Within these capes 
they found one of the most pleasant places in the 
world, majestic navigable rivers, beautiful moun- 
tains, hills and plains, and a fruitful and delight- 
some land. 

Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of 
the fair meadows and goodly tall trees. As much to 
his taste were the large and delicate oysters, which 
the natives roasted, and in which were found many 
pearls. The ground was covered with fine and 
beautiful strawberries, four times bigger than those 
in England. 

Masters Wingfield, Newport, and Gosnold, with 
thirty men, went ashore on Cape Henry, where they 
were suddenly set upon by savages, who came 
creeping upon all-fours over the hills, like bears, 
with their bows in their hands; Captain Archer was 
hurt in both hands, and a sailor dangerously 
wounded in two places on his body. It was a bad 
omen. 



64 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

The night of their arrival they anchored at Point 
Comfort, now Fortress Monroe; the box was 
opened and the orders read, which constituted 
Edward Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, 
John Smith, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, 
John Martin, and George Kendall the Council, with 
power to choose a President for a year. Until the 
13th of May they were slowly exploring the River 
Powhatan, now the James, seeking a place for the 
settlement. They selected a peninsula on the north 
side of the river, forty miles from its mouth, where 
there was good anchorage, and which could be 
readily fortified. This settlement was Jamestown. 
The Council was then sworn in, and Mr. Wingfield 
selected President. Smith being under arrest was 
not sworn in of the Council, and an oration was 
made setting forth the reason for his exclusion. 

When they had pitched upon a site for the fort, 
every man set to work, some to build the fort, 
others to pitch the tents, fell trees and make clap- 
boards to reload the ships, others to make gardens 
and nets. The fort was in the form of a triangle 
with a half-moon at each corner, intended to mount 
four or five guns. 

President Wingfield appears to have taken sol- 
dierly precautions, but Smith was not at all pleased 
with him from the first. He says " the President's 
overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise 
at arms, or fortifications but the boughs of trees 
cast together in the form of a half-moon by the ex- 
traordinary pains and diligence of Captain Ken- 
dall." He also says there was contention between 
Captain Wingfield and Captain Gosnold about the 
site of the city. 

The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th 



i607] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 65 

of May, according to Percy. Previous to that con- 
siderable explorations were made. On the i8th of 
April they launched a shallop, which they built the 
day before, and "discovered up the bay." They 
discovered a river on the south side running into 
the mainland, on the banks of which were good 
stores of mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flov/ers 
of all colors, and strawberries. Returning to their 
ships and finding the water shallow, they rowed 
over to a point of land, where they found from six 
to twelve fathoms of water, which put them in good 
comfort, therefore they named that part of the land 
Cape Comfort. On the 29th they set up a cross on 
Chesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the next day 
coasted to the Indian town of Kecoughton, now 
Hampton, where they were kindly entertained. 
When they first came to land the savages made a 
doleful noise, laying their paws to the ground and 
scratching the earth with their nails. This cere- 
mony, which was taken to be a kind of idolatry, 
ended, mats were brought from the houses, whereon 
the guests v/ere seated, and given to eat bread 
made of maize, and tobacco to smoke. The savages 
also entertained them with dancing and singing and 
antic tricks and grimaces. They were naked except 
a covering of skins about the loins, and many were 
painted in black and red, with artificial knots of 
lovely colors, beautiful and pleasing to the eye. 
The 4th of May they were entertained by the chief 
of Paspika, who favored them with a long oration, 
making a foul noise and vehement in action, the 
purport of which they did not catch. The savages 
were full of hospitality. The next day the wero- 
ance, or chief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to 
invite them to his seat. His majesty received them 



(£ CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

in as modest a proud fashion as if he had been a 
prince of a civil government. His body was paint- 
ed in crimson and his face in blue, and he wore a 
chain of beads about his neck and in his ears brace- 
lets of pearls and a bird's claw. The 8th of May 
they went up the river to the country Apomatica, 
where the natives received them in hostile array, 
the chief, with bow and arrows in one hand, and a 
pipe of tobacco in the other, offering them war or 
peace. 

These savages were as stout and able as any 
heathen or Christians in the world. Mr. Percy said 
they bore their years well. He saw among the 
Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160 years old, 
whose eyes were sunk in his head, his teeth gone, 
his hair all gray, and quite a big beard, white as 
snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as 
fast as anybody. 

The Indians soon began to be troublesome in 
their visits to the plantations, skulking about all 
night, hanging around the fort by day, bringing 
sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of 
small articles, and showing jealousy of the occu- 
pation. They murmured, says Percy, at our plant- 
ing in their country. But worse than the disposi- 
tion of the savages was the petty quarreling in the 
colony itself. 

In obedience to the orders to explore for the 
South Sea, on the 22d of May^ Newport, Percy, 
Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in the 
shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River. 

Passing by divers small habitations, and through 
a land abounding in trees, flowers, and small fruits, 
a river full of fish, and of sturgeon such as the 
w^orld beside has none, they came, on the 24 th,^ 



i6o7] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 6/ 

having passed the town of Powhatan, to the head of 
the river, the Falls, where they set up the cross and 
proclaimed King James of England. 

Smith says in his " General Historie " they reached 
Powhatan on the 26th. But Captain Newport's 
"Relatyon " agrees with Percy's, and with Smith's 
" True Relation." Captain Newport, says Percy, 
permitted no one to visit Powhatan except himself. 

Captain Newport's narration of the exploration 
of the James is interesting, being the first account 
we have of this historic river. At the junction of 
the Appomattox and the James, at a place he calls 
Wynauk, the natives welcomed them with rejoi- 
cing and entertained them with dances. The King- 
dom of Wynauk was full of pearl-mussels. The 
king of this tribe was at war with the King of 
Paspahegh. Sixteen miles above this point, at an 
inlet, perhaps Turkey Point, they were met by eight 
savages in a canoe, one of whom was intelligent 
enough to lay out the whole course of the river, 
from Chesapeake Bay to its source, with a pen and 
paper which they showed him how to use. These 
Indians kept them company for some time, meeting 
them here and there with presents of strawberries, 
mulberries, bread, and fish, for which they received 
pins, needles, and beads. They spent one night at 
Poore Cottage (the Port Cotage of Percy, where 
he saw the white boy), probably now Haxall. Five 
miles above they went ashore near the now famous 
Dutch Gap, where King Arahatic gave them a 
roasted deer, and caused his women to bake cakes 
for them. This king gave Newport his crown, 
which was of deer's hair dyed red. He was a sub- 
ject of the great King Powhatan. While they sat 
making merry with the savages, feasting and taking 



68 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

tobacco and seeing the dances, Powhatan himself 
appeared and was received with great show of 
honor, all rising from their seats except King Ara- 
hatic, and shouting loudly. To Powhatan ample 
presents were made of penny-knives, shears, and 
toys, and he invited them to visit him at one of his 
seats called Powhatan, which was within a mile of 
the Falls, where now stands the city of Richmond. 
All along the shore the inhabitants stood in clus- 
ters, offering food to the strangers. The habitation 
of Pow^hatan was situated on a high hill by the 
water side, with a meadow at its foot where was 
grown wheat, beans, tobacco, peas, pompions, flax, 
and hemp. 

Powhatan served the whites with the best he had, 
and best of all with a friendly welcome and with 
interesting discourse of the country. They made a 
league of friendship. The next day he gave them 
six men as guides to the falls above, and they left 
with him one man as a hostage. 

On Sunday, the 24th of May, having returned to 
Powhatan's seat, they made a feast for' him of pork, 
cooked with peas, and the Captain and King ate 
familiarly together; "he eat very freshly of our 
meats, dranck of our beere, aquavite, and sack." 
Under the influence of this sack and aquavite the 
King was very communicative about the mterior of 
the country, and promised to guide them to the 
mines of iron and copper; but the wary chief seems 
to have thought better of it when he got sober, and 
put them off with the difficulties and dangers of the 
way. 

On one of the islets below the Falls, Captain New- 
port set up a cross with the inscription "Jacobus, 
Rex, 1607," and his own name beneath, and James 



i6o7] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY. 69 

was proclaimed King with a great shout. Powhatan 
was displeased with their importunity to go further 
up the river, and departed with all the Indians, ex- 
cept the friendly Navirans who had accompanied 
them from Arahatic. Navirans greatly admired 
the cross, but Newport hit upon an explanation of 
its meaning that should dispel the suspicions of 
Powhatan. He told him that the two arms of the 
cross signified King Powhatan and himself, the fast- 
ening of it in the middle was their united league, 
and the shout was the reverence he did to Powhatan. 
This explanation being made to Powhatan greatly 
contented him, and he came on board and gave 
them tlie kindest farewell when they dropped down 
the river. At Arahatic they <^ound the King had 
provided victuals for them, but, says Newport, " the 
King told us that he was very sick and not able to 
sit up long with us." The inability of the noble red 
man to sit up was no doubt due to too much Chris- 
tian sack and aquavite, for on " Monday he came 
to the water side, and we went ashore with him 
again. He told us that our hot drinks, he thought, 
caused him grief, but that he was v/eil again, and 
we were very welcome." 

It seems, therefore, that to Captain Newport, who 
was a good sailor in his day, and has left his name 
in Virginia in Newport News, must be given the 
distinction of first planting the cross in Virginia, 
with a lie, and watering it, with aquavite. 

They dropped down the river to a place called 
Mulberry Shade, where the King killed a deer and 
prepared for them another feast, at which they had 
rolls and cakes made of wheat. " This the women 
make and are very cleanly about it. We had parched 
meal, excellent good, sodd [cooked] beans, which eat 



70 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

as sweet as filbert kernels, in a manner, strawber- 
ries; and mulberries were shaken off the tree, drop- 
ping on our heads as we sat. He made ready a land 
turtle which we ate; and showed that he was heartily 
rejoiced in our company." Such was the amiable 
disposition of the natives before they discovered the 
purpose of the whites to dispossess them of their 
territory. That night they stayed at a place called 
" Kynd Woman's Care," where the people offered 
them abundant victual and craved nothing in return 
Next day they went ashore at a place Newport 
calls Queen Apumatuc's Bower. This Queen, who 
owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much land under 
cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. 
This ancient representative of women's rights in 
Virginia did honor to her sex. She cam.e to meet 
the strangers in a show as majestical as that of Pow- 
hatan himself: " She had an usher before her, who 
brought her to the matt prepared under a faire mul- 
berry-tree; where she sat down by herself, with a 
stayed countenance. She would permitt none to 
stand or sitt neare her. She is a fatt, lustie, manly 
woman. She had much copper about her neck, a 
coronet of copper upon her hed. She had long, 
black haire, which hanged loose down her back to 
her myddle; which only part was covered with a 
deare's skyn, and ells all naked. She had her 
women attending her, adorned much like herself 
(except they wanted the copper). Here we had our 
accustomed eates, tobacco, and welcome. Our Cap- 
taine presented her with guyfts liberally, whereupon 
shee cheered somewhat her countenance, and re- 
quested him to shoote off a piece; whereat (we noted) 
she showed not near the like feare as Arahatic, 
though he be a goodly man." 



i6o7] FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY, *]\ 

The company was received with the same hospi- 
tality by King Pamunky, whose land was believed 
to be rich in copper and pearls. The copper was so 
flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the 
thickness of his finger as if it had been lead. The 
natives were unwilling to part with it. The King 
had about his neck a string of pearls as big as peas, 
which would have been worth three or four hundred 
pounds, if the pearls ha^d been taken from the mus- 
sels as they should have been. 

Arriving on their route at Weanock, some twenty 
miles above the fort, they were minded to visit Pas- 
pahegh and another chief — Jamestown lay in the 
territory of Paspahegh — but suspicious signs among 
the natives made them aporehend trouble at the 
fort, and they hastened thither to find their suspi- 
cions verified. The day before, May 26th, the col- 
ony had been attacked by two hundred Indians 
(four hundred, Smith says), who were only beaten off 
when they had nearly entered the fort, by the use of 
the artillery. The Indians made a valiant fight for 
an hour; eleven white men were wounded, of whom 
one died afterwards, and a boy was killed on the 
pinnace. This loss was concealed from the Indians, 
who for some time seem to have believed that the 
whites could not be hurt. Four of the Council were 
hurt in this fight, and President Wingfield, who 
showed himself a valiant gentleman, had a shot 
through his beard. They killed eleven of the In- 
dians, but their comrades lugged them away on 
their backs and buried them in the woods with a 
great noise. For several days alarms and attacks 
continued, and four or five men were cruelly wound- 
ed, and one gentleman, Mr. Eustace Cloville, died 
from the effects of five arrows in his body. 



72 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 2S 

Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was 
contented the fort should be palisaded, and the ord- 
nance mounted, and the men armed and exercised. 
The fortification went on, but the attacks con- 
tinued, and it was unsafe for any to venture beyond 
the fort. 

Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President 
Wingfield's management. Captain Newport says: 
" There being among the gentlemen and all the 
company a murmur and grudge against certain pro- 
ceedings and inconvenient courses [Newport] put 
up a petition to the Council for reformation." The 
Council heeded this petition, and urged to amity by 
Captain Newport, the company vowed faithful love 
to each other and obedience to the superiors. On 
the loth of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the 
Council. In his " General Historic," not published 
till 1624, he says: " Many were the mischiefs that 
daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious) 
spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of 
our preacher Mr. Hunt, reconciled them and caused 
Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council." 
The next day they all partook of the holy commu- 
nion. 

In order to understand this quarrel, which was 
not by any means appeased by this truce, and to 
determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it, it 
is necessary to examine all the witnesses. Smith is 
unrestrained in his expression of his contempt for 
Wingfield. But in the diary of Wingfield we find 
no accusation against Smith at this date. Wing- 
field says that Captain Newport before he departed 
asked him how he thought himself settled in the 
government, and that he replied " that no disturb- 
ance could endanger him or the colony, but it must 



t6o7] first planting OF THE COLONY. 73 

be wrought either by Captain Gosnold or Mr. Archer, 
for the one was strong with friends and followers 
and could if he would; and the other was troubled 
with an ambitious spirit and would if he could." 

The writer of Newport's " Relatyon" describes 
the Virginia savages as a very strong and lusty 
race, and swift warriors. " Their skin is tawny; 
not so borne, but with dyeing and painting them- 
selves, in which they delight greatly." That the In- 
dians were born white was, as we shall see here- 
after, a common belief among the first settlers in 
Virginia and New England. Percy notes a distinc- 
tion between m.aids and married women: " The maids 
shave close the fore part and sides of their heads, 
and leave it long behind, where it is tied up and 
hangs down to the hips. The married women wear 
their hair all of a length, but tied behind as that of 
maids is. And the women scratch on their bodies 
and limbs, with a sharp iron, pictures of fowls, fish, 
and beasts, and rub into the 'drawings' lively colors 
which dry into the flesh and are permanent." The 
" Relatyon" says the people are witty and ingenious 
and allows them many good qualities, but makes 
this exception: " The people steal anything comes 
near them; yea, are so practiced in this art, that 
looking in our face, they would with their foot, be- 
tween their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, or 
any indifferent light thing, which having once con- 
veyed, they hold it an injury to take the same from 
them. They are naturally given to treachery; how- 
beit we could not find it in our travel up the river, 
but rather a most kind and loving people." 



CHAPTER VI. 

QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 

ON Sunday, June 21, they took the communion 
lovingly together. That evening Capt. New- 
port gave a farewell supper on board his vessel. 
The 2 2d he sailed in the Siisa?! Constant for England, 
carrying specimens of woods and minerals, and 
made the short passage of five weeks. Dudley 
Carleton, in a letter to John Chamberlain dated 
Aug. 18, 1607, writes "that Capt. Newport has ar- 
rived without gold or silver, and that the adventur- 
ers, cumbered by the presence of the natives, have 
fortified themselves at a place called Jamestown." 
The colony left numbered one hundred and four. 

The good harmony of the colony did not last. 
There were other reasons why the settlement was 
unprosperous. The supply of wholesome provisions 
was inadequate. The situation of the town near 
the Chickahominy swamps was not conducive to 
health, and although Powhatan had sent to make 
peace with them, and they also made a league of 
amity with the chiefs Paspahegh and Tapahanagh, 
they evidently had little freedom of movement be- 
yond sight of their guns. Percy says they were 
very bare and scant of victuals, and in wars and 
dangers with the savages. 

Smith says in his "True Relation," which was 
written on the spot, and is much less embittered 
than his " General Historic," that they were in good 



i6o7] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 75 

health and content when Newport departed, but 
this did not long continue, for President Wingfield 
and Capt. Gosnold, with the most of the Council, 
were so discontented with each other that nothing 
was done with discretion, and no business trans- 
acted with wisdom. This he charges upon the 
"hard-dealing of the President," the rest of the 
Council being diversely affected through his auda- 
cious command. " Capt. Martin, though honest, 
was weak and sick ; Smith was in disgrace through 
the malice of others ; and God sent famine and 
sickness, so that the living were scarce able to bury 
the dead. Our want of sufficient good food, and 
continual watching, four or five each night, at three 
bulwarks, being the chief cause ; only of sturgeon 
we had great store, whereon we would so greedily 
surfeit, as it cost many their lives ; the sack, Aqua- 
vite, and other preservations of our health being 
kept in the President's hands, for his own diet and 
his few associates." 

In his *' General Historic," written many years 
later. Smith enlarges this indictment with some 
touches of humor characteristic of him. He says: 

" Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within 
ten days scarce ten amongst us could either go, or well 
stand, such extreme weaknes and sicknes oppressed us. 
And thereat none need marvaile, if they consider the 
cause and reason, which was this: whilst the ships stayed, 
our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily propor- 
tion of Bisket, which the sailors would pilfer to sell, give, 
or exchange with us for money, Saxefras, furres, or love. 
But when they departed, there remained neither taverne, 
beere-house, nor place of reliefe, but the common Kettell. 
Had we beene as free from all sinnes as gluttony, and 
drunkennesse, we might have been canonized for Saints. 
But our President would never have been admitted, for 



^6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

ingrissing to his private, Oatmeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aqua- 
vitae, Beef, Egges, or what not, but the Kettell : that in- 
deed he allowed equally to be distributed, and that was 
half a pint of wheat, and as much barley boyled with 
water for a man a day, and this being fryed some twenty- 
six weeks in the ship's hold, contained as many wormes 
as graines ; so that we might truly call it rather so much 
bran than corrne, our drinke was water, our lodgings Cas- 
tles in the ayre; with this lodging and dyet, our extreme 
toile in bearing and planting Pallisadoes, so strained and 
bruised us, and our continual labour in the extremitie of 
the heat had so weakened us, as were cause sufficient to 
have made us miserable in our native countrey, or any 
other place in the world." 

Affairs grew worse. The sufferings of this colony 
in the summer equaled that of the Pilgrims at Plym- 
outh in the Vvinter and spring. Before September 
forty-one wcie buried, says Wingfield ; fifty says 
Smith in one statement,. and forty-six in another; 
Percy gives a list of twenty-four who died in August 
and September. Late in August Wingfield said, 
'' Sickness had not now left us seven able men in 
our town." "As yet," writes Smith in September, 
" we had no houses to cover us, our teixts were rot- 
ten, and our cabins worse than nought." 

Percy gives a doleful picture of the wretchedness 
of the colony: '* Our men were destroyed with cruel 
sickness, as swellings, fluxes, burning-fevers, and 
by wars, and some departed suddenly, but for the 
most part they died of mere famine. . . . We 
watched every three nights, lying on the cold bare 
ground what weather soever came, worked all the 
next day, which brought our men to be most feeble 
wretches, our food was but a small can of barley, 
sod in water to five men a day, our drink but cold 
water taken out of the river, which was at the flood 



l6o7] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. "jy 

very salt^ at a low tide full of shrimp and filth, 
which was the destruction of many of our men. 
Thus we lived for the space of five months in this 
miserable distress, but having five able men to man 
our bulwarks upon any occasion. If it had not 
pleased God to put a terrour in the savage hearts, 
we had all perished by those wild and cruel Pagans, 
being in that weak state as we were : our men night 
and day groaning in every corner of the fort, most 
pitiful to hear. If there were any conscience in 
men, it would make their hearts to bleed to hear 
the pitiful murmurings and outcries of our sick 
men, without relief, every night and day, for the 
space of six weeks : some departing out of the 
world ; many times three or four in a night'; in the 
morning their bodies trailed out of their cabins, like 
dogs, to be buried. In this sort did I see the mor- 
tality of divers of our people." 

A severe loss to the colony was the death on the 
22d of August of Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, one of 
the Council, a brave and adventurous mariner, and, 
says Wingfield, a " worthy and religious gentleman." 
He was honorably buried, "having all the ordnance 
in the fort shot off with many volleys of small shot." 
If the Indians had known that those volleys signified 
the mortality of their comrades, the colony would 
no doubt have been cut off entirely. It is a melan- 
choly picture, this disheartened and half-famished 
band of men quarreling among themselves ; the 
occupation of the half-dozen able men was nursing 
the sick and digging graves. We anticipate here 
by saying, on the authority of a contemporary 
manuscript in the State Paper office, that when 
Capt. Newport arrived with the first supply in 
Jan., 1608, "he found the colony consisting of no 



78 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

more than forty persons ; of those, ten only able 
men." 

After the death of Gosnold, Capt. Kendall was 
deposed from the Council and put in prison for sow- 
ing discord between the President and Council, 
says Wingfield ; for heinous matters which were 
proved against him, says Percy ; for " divers rea- 
sons," says Smith, who sympathized with his dislike 
of Wingfield. The colony was in very low estate at 
this time, and was only saved from famine by the 
providential good-will of the Indians, who brought 
them corn half ripe, and presently meat and fruit 
in abundance. 

On the 7th of September the chief Paspahegh 
gave a token of peace by returning a white boy who 
had run away from camp, and other runaways were 
returned by other chiefs, who reported that they had 
been well used in their absence. By these returns 
Mr. Wingfield was convinced that the Indians were 
not cannibals, as Smith believed. 

On the loth of September Mr. Wingfield was 
deposed from the presidency and the Council, and 
Capt. John Ratcliffe was elected President. Con- 
cerning the deposition there has been much dis- 
pute; but the accounts of it by Capt. Smith and 
his friends, so long accepted as the truth, must be 
modified by Mr. Wingfield's "Discourse of Vir- 
ginia," more recently come to light, which is, in a 
sense, a defense of his conduct. 

In his " True Relation" Capt. Smith is content to 
say that " Capt. Wingfield, having ordered the affairs 
in such sort that he was hated of them all, in which 
respect he was with one accord deposed from the 
presidency." 

In the "General Historie" the charges against 



i6o7] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 79 

him, which we have already quoted, are extended, 
and a new one is added, that is, a purpose of desert- 
ing the colony in the pinnace: "the rest seeing the 
President's projects to escape these miseries in our 
pinnace by flight (who all this time had neither 
felt want nor sickness), so moved our dead spirits 
we deposed him." 

In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sick- 
ness and death, it was inevitable that extreme dis- 
satisfaction should be felt with the responsible 
head. Wingfield was accused of keeping the best 
of the supplies to himself. The commonalty may 
have believed this. Smith himself must have known 
that the supplies were limited, but have been will- 
ing to take advantage of this charge to depose the 
President, who was clearly in many ways incompe- 
tent for his trying position. It appears by Mr. 
Wingfield's statement that the supply left with the 
colony v/as very scant, a store that would only last 
thirteen weeks and a half, and prudence in the dis- 
tribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport's 
return, was a necessity. Whether Wingfield used 
the delicacies himself is a question which cannot be 
settled. In his defense, in all we read of him, 
except that written by Smith and his friends, he 
seems to be a temperate and just man, little quali- 
fied to control the bold spirits about him. 

As early as July, " in his sickness time, the Presi- 
dent did easily fortell his own deposing from his 
command," so much did he differ from the Council 
in the management of the colony. Under date of 
September 7th he says that the Council demanded 
a larger allowance for themselves and for some of 
the sick, their favorites, which he declined to give 
without their warrants as councilors. Capt. Martin 



80 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

of the Council was till then ignorant that only store 
for thirteen and a half weeks was in the hands of 
the Cape Merchant, or treasurer, who was at that 
time Mr. Thomas Studley. Upon a representation 
to the Council of the lowness of the stores, and the 
length of time that must elapse before the harvest 
of grain, they declined to enlarge the allowance, 
and even ordered that every meal of fish or flesh 
should excuse the allowance of porridge. Mr. 
Wingfield goes on to say: "Nor was the common 
store of oyle, vinegar, sack, and aquavite all spent, 
saving two gallons of each: the sack reserved for 
the Communion table, the rest for such extremities as 
might fall upon us, which the President had only 
made known to Capt. Gosnold; of which course he 
liked well. The vessels wear, therefore, boonged 
upp. When Mr. Gosnold was dead, the President 
did acquaint the rest of the Council with the said 
remnant; but. Lord, how they then longed for to 
supp up that little remnant: for they had now 
emptied all their own bottles, and all other that they 
could smell out." 

Shortly after this the Council again importuned 
the President for some better allowance for them- 
selves and for the sick. He protested his impar- 
tiality, showed them that if the portions were 
distributed according to their request the colony 
would soon starve; he still offered to deliver what 
they pleased on their warrants, but would not him- 
self take the responsibility of distributing all the 
stores, and when he divined the reason of their 
impatience he besought them to bestow the presi- 
dency among themselves, and he would be content 
to obey as a private. Meantime the Indians were 
bringing in supplies of corn and meat, the men 



i6o7] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 8 1 

were so improved in health that thirty were able to 
work, and provision for three weeks' bread was laid 
up. 

Nevertheless, says Mr. Wingfield, the Council had 
fully plotted to depose him. Of the original seven, 
there remained, besides Mr. Wingfield, only three 
in the Council. Newport was in England, Gosnold 
was dead, and Kendall deposed. Mr. Wingfield 
charged that the three — Ratcliffe, Smith, and Martin 
— forsook the instructions of his Majesty, and set 
up a Triumvirate. At any rate, Wingfield was 
forcibly deposed from the Council on the loth of 
September. If the object had been merely to 
depose him, there was an easier way, for Wingfield 
was ready to resign. But it appears, by subsequent 
proceedings, that they wished to fasten upon him 
the charge of embezzlement, the responsibility of 
the sufferings of the colony, and to mulct him in 
fines. He was arrested, and confined on the pin- 
nace. Mr. Ratcliffe was made President. 

On the nth of September Mr. Wingfield was 
brought before the Council sitting as a court, and 
heard the charges against him. They were, as Mr. 
Wingfield says, mostly frivolous trifles. Accord- 
ing to his report they were these: 

First, Mister President [Radcliffe] said that I had 
denied him a penny whitle, a chicken, a spoonful of 
beer, and served him with foul corn; and with that 
pulled some grain out of a bag, showing it to the 
company. 

Then starts up Mr. Smith and said that I had 
told him plainly how he lied; and that I said, 
though we were equal here, yet if we were in Eng- 
land, he [I] would think scorn his man should be 
my companion. 



82 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

Mr. Martin followed with: "He reported that I 
do slack the service in the colony, and do nothing 
but tend m}^ pot, spit, and oven; but he hath starved 
my son, and denied him a spoonful of beer. I have 
friends in England shall be revenged on him, if 
ever he come in London," 

Voluminous charges were read against Mr. Wing- 
field by Mr. Archer, who had been made by the 
Council, Recorder of Virginia, the author, according 
to Wingfield, of three several mutinies, as 'always 
hatching of some mutiny in my time." 

Mr. Percy sent him word in his prison that wit- 
nesses were hired to testify against him by bribes 
of cakes and by threats. If Mr. Percy, who was a 
volunteer in this expedition, and a man of high 
character, did send this information, it shows that 
he sympathized with him, and this is an important 
piece of testimony to his good character. 

Wingfield saw no way of escape from the malice 
of his accusers, whose purpose he suspected was to 
fine him fivefold for all the supplies whose dispo- 
sition he could not account for in writing: but he 
was finally allowed to appeal to the King for mercy, 
,and recommitted to the pinnace. In regard to the 
charge of embezzlement, Mr. Wingfield admitted 
that it was impossible to render a full account: he 
had no bill of items from the Cape Merchant when 
he received the stores; he had used the stores for 
trade and gifts with the Indians; Capt. Newport 
had done the same in his expedition, without giv- 
ing any memorandum. Yet he averred that he 
never expended the value of these penny whittles 
[small pocket-knives] to his private use. 

There was a mutinous and riotous spirit on shore, 
and the Council professed to think Wingfield's life 



l607] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 83 

was in danger. He says: "In all these disorders 
was Mr. Archer a ringleader." Meantime the 
Indians continued to bring in supplies, and the 
Council traded up and down the river for corn, and 
for this energy Mr. Wingfield gives credit to " Mr. 
Smith especially," "which relieved the colony well." 
To the report that was brought him that he was 
charged with starving the colony, he replies with 
some natural heat and a little show of petulance, 
that may be taken as an evidence of weakness, as 
well as of sincerity, and exhibiting the undignified 
nature of all this squabbling: 

" I did alwaises give every man his allowance faithfully, 
both of corne, oyle, aquivite, etc., as was by the counsell 
proportioned : neyther was it bettered after my tyme, 
untill, towards th' end of March, a bisket was allowed to 
every working man for his breakfast, by means of the 
provision brought us by Captn. Newport: as will appeare 
hereafter. It is further said, I did much banquit and 
ryot. I never had but one squirrel roasted ; whereof I 
gave part to Mr. Ratcliffe then sick : yet was that squirrel 
given me. I did never heate a flesh pott but when the 
comon pott was so used likewise. Yet how often Mr. 
President's and the Councellors' spitts have night and daye 
bene endaungered to break their backes — so laden with 
swanns, geese, ducks, etc.! how many times their flesh 
potts have swelled, many hungrie eies did behold, to their 
great longing : and what great theeves and theeving thear 
hath been in the comon stoare since my tyme, I doubt 
not but is already made knowne to his Majesty's Councell 
for Virginia." 

Poor Wingfield was not left at ease in his confine- 
ment. On the 17th he was brought ashore to 
answer the charge of Jehu [John ?] Robinson that he 
had with Robinson and others intended to run 
away with the pinnace to Newfoundland; and the 



84 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 28 

charge by Mr. Smith that he had accused Smith of 
intending mutiny. To the first accuser the jury 
awarded one hundred pounds, and to the other two 
hundred pounds damages, for slander. " Seeing 
their law so speedy and cheap," Mr. Wingfield 
thought he would try to recover a copper kettle he 
had lent Mr. Crofts, worth half its weight in gold. 
But Crofts swore that Wingfield had given it to him, 
and he lost his kettle: "I told Mr. President I had 
not known the like law, and prayed they would be 
more sparing of law till we had more witt or 
wealthe." Another day they obtained from Wing- 
field the key to his coffers, and took all his accounts, 
note-books, and " owne proper goods," which he 
could never recover. " Thus was I made good 
prize on all sides." 

During one of Smith's absences on the river 
President Ratcliffe did beat James Read, the black- 
smith. Wingfield says the Council were continually 
beating the men for their own pleasure. Read 
struck back. For this he was condemned to be 
hanged; but "before he turned of the lather," he 
desired to speak privately with the President, and 
thereupon accused Mr. Kendall — who had been 
released from the pinnace when Wingfield was sent 
aboard — of mutiny. Read escaped. Kendall was 
convicted of mutiny and shot to death. In arrest 
of judgment he objected that the President had no 
authority to pronounce judgment because his name 
was Sicklemore and not Ratcliffe. This was true, 
and Mr. Martin pronounced the sentence. In his 
"True Relation," Smith agrees with this statement 
of the death of Kendall, and says that he was tried 
by a jury. It illustrates the general looseness of 
the "General Historic," written and compiled many 



i6o7] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 8^ 

years afterwards, that this transaction there appears 
as follows: " Wingfield and Kendall being in dis- 
grace, seeing all things at random in the absence 
of Smith, the company's dislike of their President's 
weakness, and their small love to Martin's never- 
mending sickness, strengthened themselves with 
the sailors and other confederates to regain their 
power, control, and authority, or at least such 
meanes aboard the pinnace (being fitted to sail as 
Smith had appointed for trade) to alter her course 
and to goe for England. Smith unexpectedly 
returning had the plot discovered to him, much 
trouble he had to prevent it, till with store of sakre 
and musket-shot he forced them to stay or sink in 
the river, which action cost the life of Capt. Ken- 
dall." 

In a following sentence he says: " The President 
[Ratcliffe] and Capt, Archer not long after intended 
also to have abandoned the country, which project 
also was curbed and suppressed by Smith." Smith 
was always suppressing attempts at flight, accord- 
ing to his own story, unconfirmed by any other 
writers. He had before accused President Wing- 
field of a design to escape in the pinnace. 

Communications were evidently exchanged with 
Mr. Wingfield on the pinnace, and the President 
was evidently ill at ease about him. One day he 
was summoned ashore, but declined to go, and 
requested an interview with ten gentlemen. To 
those who came off to him he said that he had 
determined to go to England to make known the 
weakness of the colony, that he could not live under 
the laws and usurpations of the Triumvirate; how- 
ever, if the President and Mr. Archer would go, he 
was willing to stay and take his fortune with the 



86 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

colony, or he would contribute one hundred pounds 
towards taking the colony home. " They did like 
none of my proffers, but made divers shott at uss 
in the pynnasse." Thereupon he went ashore and 
had a conference. 

On the loth of December Capt. Smith departed 
on his famous expedition up the Chickahominy, 
during which the alleged Pocahontas episode 
occurred. Mr. Wingfield's condensed account of 
this journey and captivity we shall refer to here- 
after. In Smith's absence President Ratcliffe, con- 
trary to his oath, swore Mr. Archer one of the 
Council; and Archer was no sooner settled in 
authority than he sought to take Smith's life. The 
enmity of this man must be regarded as a long 
credit mark to Smith. Archer had him indicted 
upon a chapter in Leviticus (they all wore a garb 
of piety) for the death of two men who were killed 
by the Indians on his expedition. " He had had 
his trials the same dale of his retourne," says Wing- 
field, " and I believe his hanging the same, or the 
next dale, so speedy is our law there. But it 
pleased God to send Capt. Newport unto us the 
same evening, to our unspeakable comfort; whose 
arrivall saved Mr. Smyth's leif and mine, because 
he took me out of the pynnasse, and gave me leave 
to lyve in the towne. Also by his comying was 
prevented a parliament, which the newe counsailor, 
Mr. Recorder, intended thear to summon." 

Capt. Newport's arrival was indeed opportune. 
He was the only one of the Council whose character 
and authority seem to have been generally respected, 
the only one who could restore any sort of harmony 
and curb the factious humors of the other leaders. 
Smith should have all credit for his energy in pro- 



i6o8] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 87 

curing supplies, for his sagacity in dealing with the 
Indians, for better sense than most of the other 
colonists exhibited, and for more fidelity to the 
objects of the plantation than most of them; bu.t 
where ability to rule is claimed for him, at this junc- 
ture we can but contrast the deference shown by 
all to Newport with the want of it given to Smith. 
Newport's presence at once quelled all the uneasy 
spirits. 

Newport's arrival, says Wingfield, '' saved Mr. 
Smith's life and mine." Smith's account of the 
episode is substantially the same. In his "True 
Relation" he says on his return to the fort "each 
man with truest signs of joy they could express 
welcomed me, except Mr. Archer, and some two or 
three of his, who was then in my absence sworn 
councilor, though not with the consent of Capt. 
Martin; great blame and imputation was laid upon 
me by them for the loss of our two men which the 
Indians slew: insomuch that they purposed to de- 
pose me, but in the midst of my miseries, it pleased 
God to send Capt. Newport, who arriving there 
the same night, so tripled our joy, as for a while 
those plots against me were deferred, though with 
much malice against me, which Capt. Newport in 
short time did plainly see." In his "Map of Vir- 
ginia," the Oxford tract of 16 12, Smith does not 
allude to this; but in the " General Historic" it had 
assumed a different aspect in his mind, for at the 
time of writing that he was the irresistible hero, 
and remembered himself as always nearly omnipo- 
tent in Virginia. Therefore, instead of expressions 
of gratitude to Newport we read this: "Now in 
Jamestown they were all in combustion, the strong- 
est preparing once more to run away with the pin- 



88 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

nace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre, 
falcon and musket shot, Smith forced now the third 
time to stay or sink. Some no better than they 
should be, had plotted to put him to death by the 
Levitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, 
pretending that the fault was his, that led them to 
their ends; but he quickly took such order with 
such Lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till 
he sent some of them prisoners to England." 

Clearly Capt. Smith had no authority to send 
anybody prisoner to England. When Newport 
returned, April 10, Wingfield and Archer went 
with him. Wingfield no doubt desired to return. 
Archer was so insolent, seditious, and libelous that 
he only escaped the halter by the interposition of 
Newport. The colony was willing to spare both 
these men, and probably Newport it was who de- 
cided they should go. As one of the Council, 
Smith would undoubtedly favor their going. He 
says in the "General Historic": "We not having 
any use of parliaments, plaises, petitions, admi- 
rals, recorders, interpreters, chronologers, courts of 
plea, or justices of peace, sent Master Wingfield and 
Captain Archer home with him, that had engrossed 
all those titles, to seek some better place of em- 
ployment." Mr. Wingfield never returned. Capt. 
Archer returned in 1609, with the expedition of 
Gates and Somers, as master of one of the ships. 

Newport had arrived with the first supply on 
the 8th of January, 1608. The day before, accord- 
ing to Wingfield, a fire occurred which destroyed 
nearly all the town, with the clothing and provis- 
ions. According to Smith, who is probably correct 
in this, the fire did not occur till five or six days 
after the arrival of the ship. The date is uncer- 



i6oS] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 89 

tain, and some doubt is also thrown upon the date 
of the arrival of the ship. It was on the day of 
Smith's return from captivity: and that captivity 
lasted about four weeks if the return was January 
8, for he started on the expedition December 10. 
Smith subsequently speaks of his captivity lasting 
six or seven weeks. 

In his " General Historie" Smith says the fire 
happened after the return of the expedition of 
Newport, Smith, and Scrivener to the Pamunkey: 
"Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his 
library, and all he had but the clothes on his back; 
yet none ever heard him repine at his loss." This 
excellent and devoted man is the only one of these 
first pioneers of whom everybody speaks well, and 
he deserved all affection and respect. 

One of the first labors of Newport was to erect a 
suitable church. Services had been held under 
many disadvantages, which Smith depicts in his 
" Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters," pub- 
lished in London in 1631: 

" When I first went to Virginia, I well remember, 
we did hang an awning (which is an old saile) to 
three or foure trees to shadow us from the Sunne, 
our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewed 
trees, till we cut plankes, our Pulpit a bar of wood 
nailed to two neighboring trees, in foule weather 
we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few 
better, and this came by the way of adventure for 
me; this was our Church, till we built a homely thing 
like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, 
sedge and earth, so was also the walls: the best of 
our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part 
farre much worse workmanship, that could neither 
well defend wind nor raine, yet we had daily Com- 



90 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

mon Prayer morning and evening, every day two 
Sermons, and every three moneths the holy Com- 
munion, till our Minister died, [Robert Hunt,] but 
our Prayers daily, with an Homily on Sundaies." 

It is due to Mr. Wingfield, who is about to dis- 
appear from Virginia, that something more in his 
defense against the charges of Smith and the others 
should be given. It is not possible now to say how 
the suspicion of his religious soundness arose, but 
there seems to have been a notion that he had papal 
tendencies. His grandfather. Sir Richard Wing- 
field, was buried in Toledo, Spain. His father, 
Thomas Maria Wingfield, was christened by Queen 
Mary and Cardinal Pole. These facts perhaps 
gave rise to the suspicion. He answers them with 
some dignity and simplicity, and with a little queru- 
lousness: 

" It is noised that I combyned with the Spanniards to 
the distruccion of the Collony; that I ame an atheist, be- 
cause I carryed not a Bible with me, and because I did 
forbid the preacher to preache ; that I affected a kingdome ; 
that I did hide of the comon provision in the ground. 

" I confesse I have alwayes admyred any noble vertue 
and prowesse, as well in the Spanniards (as in other na- 
tions) : but naturally I have alwayes distrusted and disliked 
their neighborhoode. I sorted many bookes in my house, 
to be sent up to me at my goeing to Virginia; amongst 
them a Bible. They were sent up in a trunk to London, 
with divers fruite, conserves, and preserves, which I did 
sett in Mr. Crofts his house in Ratcliff. In my beeing at 
Virginia, I did understand my trunk was thear broken up, 
much lost, my sweetmeates eaten at his table, some of my 
bookes which I missed to be seene in his hands : and 
whether amongst them my Bible was so ymbeasiled or 
mislayed by my servants, and not sent me, I knowe not as 
yet. 



i6o8] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 9 1 

**Two or three Sunday mornings, the Indians gave us 
allarums at our towne. By that tymes they weare 
answered, the place about us well discovered, and our 
devyne service ended, the dale was farr spent. The 
preacher did aske me if it were my pleasure to have a 
sermon: hee said hee was prepared for it. I made 
answere, that our men were weary and hungry, and that 
he did see the time of the daie farr past (for at other 
tymes hee never made such question, but, the service 
finished he began his sermon) ; and that, if it pleased him, 
wee would spare him till some other tyme. I never failed 
to take such noates by wrighting out of his doctrine as 
my capacity could comprehend, unless some raynie day 
hindred my endeavor. My mynde never swelled with such 
ympossible mountebank humors as could make me affect 
any other kingdome than the kingdom of heaven. 

"As truly as God liveth, I gave an ould man, then the 
keeper of the private store, 2 glasses with sallet oyle which 
I brought with me out of England for my private stoare, 
and willed him to bury it in the ground, for that I feared 
the great heate would spoile it. Whatsoever was more, I 
did never consent unto or know of it, and as truly was it 
protested unto me, that all the remaynder before men- 
cioned of the oyle, wyne, &c., which the President receyved 
of me when I was deposed they themselves poored into 
their owne bellyes. 

"To the President's and Counsell's objections I sale 
that I doe knowe curtesey and civility became a governor. 
No penny whittle was asked me, but a knife, whereof I 
have none to spare. The Indyans had long before stoallen 
my knife. Of chickins I never did eat but one, and that 
in mysicknes. Mr. Ratcliff had before that time tasted of 
4 or 5. I had by my owne huswiferie bred above 37, and 
the most part of them my owne poultrye ; of all which, at 
my comyng awaie, I did not see three living. I never de- 
nyed him (or any other) beare, when I had it. The corne 
was of the same which we all lived upon. 

" Mr. Smyth, in the time of our hungar, had spread a 
rumor in the Collony, that I did feast myself and my 



92 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

servants out of the comon stoare, with entent (as I gath- 
ered) to have stirred the discontented company against 
me. I told him privately, in Mr. Gosnold's tent, that in- 
deede I had caused half a pint of pease to be sodden with 
a peese of pork, of my own provision, for a poore old man, 
which in a sicknes (whereof he died) he much desired; 
and said, that if out of his malice he had given it out 
otherwise, that hee did tell a leye. It was proved to his 
face, that he begged in Ireland, like a rogue, without a 
lycence. To such I would not my name should be a com- 
panyon." 

The explanation about the Bible as a part of his 
baggage is a little far-fetched, and it is evident 
that that book was not his daily companion. 
Whether John Smith habitually carried one about 
v^ith him w^e are not informed. The whole passage 
quoted gives us a curious picture of the mind and 
of the habits of the time. This allusion to John 
Smith's begging is the only reference we can find 
to his having been in Ireland. If he was there it 
must have been in that interim in his own narrative 
between his return from Morocco and his going to 
Virginia. He was likely enough to seek adventure 
there, as the hangers-on of the court in Raleigh's 
day occasionally did, and perhaps nothing occurred 
during his visit there that he cared to celebrate. If 
he went to Ireland he probably got in straits there, 
for that was his usual luck. 

Whatever is the truth about Mr. Wingfield's in- 
efTliciency and embezzlement of corn meal, Com- 
munion sack, and penny whittles, his enemies had 
no respect for each other or concord among them- 
selves. It is Wingfield's testimony that Ratcliffe 
said he would not have been deposed if he had 
visited Ratcliffe during his sickness. Smith said 
that Wingfield would not have been deposed except 



i6o8] QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS. 93 

for Archer; that the charges against him were 
frivolous. Yet, says Wingfield, " I do believe him 
the first and only practiser in these practices," and 
he attributed Smith's hostility to the fact that "his 
name was mentioned in the intended and confessed 
mutiny by Galthrop." No other reference is made 
to this mutiny. Galthrop was one of those who 
died in the previous August. 

One of the best re-enforcements of the first supply 
was Matthew Scrivener, who was appointed one of 
the Council. He was a sensible man, and he and 
Smith worked together in harmony for some time. 
They were intent upon building up the colony. 
Everybody else in the camp was crazy about the pros- 
pect of gold: there was, says Smith, "no talk, no 
hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, 
load gold, such a bruit of gold that one mad fellow 
desired to be buried in the sands, lest they should by 
their art make gold of his bones." He charges that 
Newport delayed his return to England on account 
of this gold fever, in order to load his vessel (which 
remained fourteen weeks when it might have sailed 
in fourteen days) with gold-dust. Capt. Martin 
seconded Newport in this; Smith protested against 
it; he thought Newport was no refiner, and it did 
torment him " to see all necessary business neglect- 
ed, to fraught such a drunken ship with so much 
gilded durt." This was the famous load of gold 
that proved to be iron pyrites. 

In speaking of the exploration of the James River 
as far as the Falls by Newport, Smith, and Percy, 
we have followed the statements of Percy and the 
writer of Newport's discovery that they saw the 
great Powhatan. There is much doubt of this. 
Smith in his "True Relation" does not say so; in 



94 CAP7'A1N JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

his voyage up the Chickahominy he seems to have 
seen Powhatan for the first time; and Wingfield 
speaks of Powhatan, on Smith's return from that 
voyage, as one "of whom before we had no knowl- 
edge." It is conjectured that the one seen at 
Powhatan's seat near the Falls was a son of the 
"Emperor." It was partly the exaggeration of the 
times to magnify discoveries, and partly English 
love of high titles, that attributed such titles as 
princes, emperors, and kings to the half-naked bar- 
barians and petty chiefs of Virginia. 

In all the accounts of the colony at this period, 
no mention is made of women, and it is not prob- 
able that any went over with the first colonists. The 
character of the men was not high. Many of them 
were "gentlemen" adventurers, turbulent spirits, 
who would not work, who were much better fitted 
for piratical maraudings than the labor of founding 
a state. The historian must agree with the im- 
pression conveyed by Smith, that it was poor ma- 
terial out of which to make a colony. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SMITH TO THE FRONT. 

IT is now time to turn to Smith's personal adven- 
tures among the Indians during this period. 
Almost our only authority is Smith himself, or such 
presumed writings of his companions as he edited 
or rewrote. Strachey and others testify to his en- 
ergy in procuring supplies for the colony, and his 
success in dealing with the Indians, and it seems 
likely that the colony would have famished but 
for his exertions. Whatever suspicion attaches to 
Smith's relation of his own exploits, it must nevei 
be forgotten that he was a man of extraordinary 
executive ability, and had many good qualities to 
offset his vanity and impatience of restraint. 

After the departure of Wingfield, Captain Smith 
was constrained to act as Cape Merchant; the lead- 
ers were sick or discontented, the rest were in de- 
spair, and would rather starve and rot than do any- 
thing for their own relief, and the Indian trade was 
decreasing. Under these circumstances, Smith says 
in his " True Relation," " I was sent to the mouth 
of the river, to Kegquoughtan [now Hampton], an 
Indian Towne, to trade for corn, and try the rivei- 
for fish." The Indians, thinking them near fam- 
ished, tantalized them with offers of little bits of 
bread in exchange for a hatchet or a piece of cop- 
per, and Smith offered trifles in return. The next 
day the Indians were anxious to trade. Smith sent 



96 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [Mi. 28 

men up to their town, a display of force was made 
by firing four guns, and the Indians kindly traded, 
giving fish, oysters, bread, and deer. The town 
contained eighteen houses, and heaps of grain. 
Smith obtained fifteen bushels of it, and on his 
homeward way he met two canoes with Indians, 
whom he accompanied to their villages on the south 
side of the river, and got from them fifteen bushels 
more. 

This incident is expanded in the "General His- 
torie." After the lapse of fifteen years Smith is 
able to remember more details, and to conceive 
himself as the one efficient man who had charge of 
everything outside the fort, and to represent his 
dealings with" the Indians in a much more heroic 
and summary manner. He was not sent on the ex- 
pedition, but went of his own motion. The account 
opens in this way: "The new President [Ratcliffe] 
and Martin, being little beloved, of weake judge- 
ment in dangers, and loose Industrie in peace, com- 
mitted the management of all things abroad to 
Captain Smith ; who by his own example, good 
words, and fair promises, set some to mow, others 
to binde thatch, some to builde houses, others to 
thatch them, himselfe always bearing the greatest 
taske for his own share, so that in short time he 
provided most of them with lodgings, neglecting 
any for himselfe. This done, seeing the Salvage 
superfluities beginne to decrease (with some of his 
workmen) shipped himself in the Shallop to search 
the country for trade." 

In this narration, when the Indians trifled with 
Smith he fired a volley at them, ran his boat ashore, 
and pursued them fleeing towards their village, 
where were great heaps of corn that he could with 



i6o7] SMITH TO THE FRONT. 97 

difficulty restrain his soldiers [six or seven] from 
taking. The Indians then assaulted them with a 
hideous noise: "Sixty or seventy of them, some 
black, some red, some white, some parti-coloured, 
came in a square order, singing and dancing out 
of the woods, with their Okee (which is an Idol 
made of skinnes, stuffed with mosse, and painted 
and hung with chains and copper) borne before 
them; and in this manner being well armed with 
clubs, targets, bowes and arrowes, they charged the 
English that so kindly received them with their 
muskets loaden with pistol shot, that down fell 
their God, and divers lay sprawling on the ground; 
the rest fied againe to the woods, and ere long sent 
men of their Quiyoughkasoucks [conjurors] to offer 
peace and redeeme the Okee." Good feeling was 
restored, and the savages brought the English 
" venison, turkies, wild fowl, bread all that they 
had, singing and dancing in sign of friendship till 
they departed." This fantastical account is much 
more readable than the former bare narration. 

The supplies which Smith brought gave great 
comfort to the despairing colony, which was by 
this time reasonably fitted with houses. But it was 
not long before they again ran short of food. In 
his first narrative Smith says there were some mo- 
tions made for the President and Captain Arthur to 
go over to England and procure a supply, but it 
was with much ado concluded that the pinnace and 
the barge should go up the river to Powhatan to 
trade for corn, and the lot fell to Smith to command 
the expedition. In his " General Historie " a little 
different complexion is put upon this. On his re- 
turn, Smith says, he suppressed an attempt to run 
away with the pinnace to England. He represents 



98 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

that what food " he carefully provided the rest care- 
lessly spent," and there is probably much truth in 
his charges that the settlers were idle and improvi- 
dent. He says also that they were in continual 
broils at this time. It is in the fall of 1607 — just 
before his famous voyage up the Chickahominy, on 
which he departed Dec. loth — that he writes: "The 
President and Captain Arthur intended not long 
after to have abandoned the country, which project 
was curbed and suppressed by Smith. The Span- 
iard never more greedily desired gold than he vic- 
tual, nor his soldiers more to abandon the country 
than he to keep it. But finding plenty of corn 
in the river of Chickahomania, where hundreds of 
salvages in divers places stood with baskets ex- 
pecting his coming, and now the winter approaching, 
the rivers became covered with swans, geese, ducks, 
and cranes, that we daily feasted with good bread, 
Virginia peas, pumpions, and putchamins, fish, 
fowls, and divers sorts of wild beasts as fat as we 
could eat them, so that none of our Tuftaffaty hu- 
morists desired to go to England." 

While the Chickahominy expedition was prepar- 
ing, Smith made a voyage to Popohanock or Qui- 
youghcohanock, as it is called on his map, a town 
on the south side of the river, above Jamestown. 
Here the women and children fled from their homes 
and the natives refused to trade. They had plenty 
of corn, but Smith says he had no commission to 
spoil them. On his return he called at Paspahegh, 
a town on the north side of the James, and on the 
map placed higher than Popohanock, but evidently 
nearer to Jamestown, as he visited it on his return. 
He obtained ten bushels of corn of the churlish and 



i6o7] SMITH TO THE FRONT. 99 

treacherous natives, who closely watched and dogged 
the expedition. 

Everything was now ready for the journey to 
Powhatan. Smith had the barge and eight men for 
trading and discovery, and the pinnace was to fol- 
low to take the supplies at convenient landings. 
On the 9th of November he set out in the barge to 
explore the Chickahominy, which is described as 
emptying into the James at Paspahegh, eight miles 
above the fort. The pinnace was to ascend the 
river twenty miles to Point Weanock, and to await 
Smith there. All the month of November Smith 
toiled up and down the Chickahominy, discovering 
and visiting many villages, finding the natives kind- 
ly disposed and eager to trade, and possessing 
abundance of corn. Notwithstanding this abun- 
dance, many were still mutinous. At this time oc- 
curred the President's quarrel with the blacksmith, 
who, for assaulting the President, was condemned 
to death, and released on disclosing a conspiracy of 
which Captain Kendall was principal; and the latter 
was executed in his place. Smith returned from a 
third voyage to the Chickahominy with more sup- 
plies, only to find the matter of sending the pinnace 
to England still debated. This project, by the help 
of Captain Martin, he again quieted, and at last set 
forward on his famous voyage into the country of 
Powhatan and Pocahontas. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FAMOUS CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. 

WE now enter upon the most interesting episode 
in the life of the gallant captain, more thrill- 
ing and not less romantic than the captivity in 
Turkey and the tale of the faithful love of the fair 
young mistress Charatza Tragabigzanda. 

Although the conduct of the lovely Charatza in 
dispatching Smith to her cruel brother in Nalbrits, 
w^here he led the life of a dog, was never explained, 
he never lost faith in her. His loyalt}^ to women 
was equal to his admiration of them, and it was be- 
stowed without regard to race or complexion. Nor 
is there any evidence that the dusky Pocahontas, 
who is about to appear, displaced in his heart the 
image of the too partial Tragabigzanda. In regard 
to women, as to his own exploits, seen in the light 
of memory, Smith possessed a creative imagination. 
He did not create Pocahontas, as perhaps he may 
have created the beautiful mistress of Bashaw Bo- 
gall, but he invested her with a romantic interest 
which forms a lovely halo about his own memory. 

As this voyage up the Chickahominy is more 
fruitful in its consequences than Jason's voyage to 
Colchis ; as it exhibits the energy, daring, invention 
and various accomplishments of Capt. Smith, as 
warrior, negotiator, poet, and narrator ; as it de- 
scribes Smith's first and only captivity among the 
Indians ; and as it was during this absence of four 
weeks from Jamestown, if ever, that Pocahontas in- 



i6o7] THE CHICKAHOMIN V VO YA GE. I O I 

terposed to prevent the beating out of Smith's 
brains with a club, I shall insert the account of it in 
full, both Smith's own varying relations of it, and 
such contemporary notices of it as now come to 
light. It is necessary here to present several ac- 
counts, just as they stand, and in the order in which 
they were written, that the reader may see for him- 
self how the story of Pocahontas grew to its final 
proportions. The real life of Pocahontas will form 
the subject of another chapter. 

The first of these accounts is taken from " The 
True Relation," written by Capt. John Smith, com- 
posed in Virginia, the earliest published work relat- 
ing to the James River Colony. It covers a period 
of a little more than thirteen months, from the ar- 
rival at Cape Henry on April 26th, 1607, to the re- 
turn of Capt. Nelson in the Fhcemx, June 2d, 1608. 
The manuscript was probably taken home by Capt. 
Nelson, and it was published in London in 1608. 
Whether it was intended for publication is doubt- 
ful ; but at that time all news of the venture in 
Virginia was eagerly sought, and a narrative of this 
importance would naturally speedily get into print. 

In the several copies of it extant there are varia- 
tions in the title page, which was changed while the 
edition was being printed. In some the name of 
Thomas Watson is given as the author, in others 
" A Gentleman of the Colony," and an apology ap- 
pears signed " T. H.," for the want of knowledge 
or inadvertence of attributing it to any one except 
Capt. Smith.** 

* For a full bibliographical discussion of this point the reader 
is referred to the reprint of "The True Relation," by Charles 
Deane, Esq., Boston, 1864, the preface and notes to which are 
a masterpiece of critical analysis. 



I02 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

There is no doubt that Smith was its author. 
He was still in Virginia when it was printed, and 
the printers made sad work of parts of his manu- 
script. The question has been raised, in view of the 
entire omission of the name of Pocahontas in con- 
nection with this voyage and captivity, whether the 
manuscript was not cut by those who published it. 
The reason given for excision is that the promoters 
of the Virginia scheme were anxious that nothing 
should appear to discourage capitalists, or to deter 
emigrants, and that this story of the hostility and 
cruelty of Powhatan, only averted by the tender 
mercy of his daughter, would have an unfortunate 
effect. The answer to this is that the hostility was 
exhibited by the captivity and the intimation that 
Smith was being fatted to be eaten, and this was 
permitted to stand. It is wholly improbable that 
an incident so romantic, so appealing to the imagi- 
nation, in an age when wonder-tales were eagerly 
welcomed, and which exhibited such tender pity in 
the breast of a savage maiden, and such paternal 
clemency in a savage chief, would have been omit- 
ted. It was calculated to lend a lively interest to 
the narration, and would be invaluable as an adver- 
tisement of the adventure. 

That some portions of " The True Relation " were 
omitted is possible. There is internal evidence of 
this in the abrupt manner in which it opens, and in 
the absence of allusions to the discords during the 
voyage and on the arrival. Capt. Smith was not 
the man to pass over such questions in silence, as 
his subsequent caustic letter sent home to the Gov- 
ernor and Council of Virginia shows. And it is 
probable enough that the London promoters would 
cut out from the " Relation " complaints and evi- 



i6o7] THE CHICK A HOMINY VOYAGE. IO3 

dence of the seditions and helpless state of the 
colony. The narration of the captivity is consistent 
as it stands, and wholly inconsistent with the Poca- 
hontas episode. 

We extract from the narrative after Smith's de- 
parture from Apocant, the highest town inhabited, 
between thirty and forty miles up the river, and be- 
low Orapaks, one of Powhatan's seats, which also 
appears on his map. He writes : 

"Ten miles higher I discovered with the barge; in the 
midway a great tree hindered my passage, which I cut in 
two : heere the river became narrower, 8, 9 or 10 foote at a 
high water, and 6 or 7 at a lowe : the stream exceeding 
swift, and the bottom hard channell, the ground most part 
a low plaine, sandy soyle, this occasioned me to suppose 
it might issue from some lake or some broad ford, for it 
could not be far to the head, but rather then I would en- 
danger the barge, yet to have beene able to resolve this 
doubt, and to discharge the imputating malicious tungs, 
that halfe suspected I durst not for so long delaying, some 
of the company, as desirous as myself, we resolved to hier 
a canow, and returne with the barge to Apocant, there to 
leave the barge secure, and put ourselves upon the adven- 
ture : the country onely a vast and wilde wilderness, and 
but only that Towne : within three or foure mile we hired 
a canow, and 2 Indians to row us ye next day a fowling : 
having made such provision for the barge as was need- 
full, I left her there to ride, with expresse charge not any 
to go ashore til my returne. Though some wise men may 
condemn this too bould attempt of too much indiscretion, 
yet if they well consider the friendship of the Indians, in 
conducting me, the desolatenes of the country, the prob- 
abilitie of some lacke, and the malicious judges of my ac- 
tions at home, as also to have some matters of worth to 
incourage our adventurers in england, might well have 
caused any honest minde to have done the like, as wel for 
his own discharge as for the publike good : having 2 In- 



104 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

dians for my guide and 2 of our own company, I set for- 
ward, leaving 7 in the barge; having discovered 20 miles 
further in this desart, the river stil kept his depth and 
bredth, but much more combred with trees ; here we went 
ashore (being some 12 miles higher than ye barge had 
bene) to refresh our selves, during the boyling of our 
vituals : one of the Indians I tooke with me, to see the 
nature of the soile, and to cross the boughts of the river, 
the other Indian I left with M. Robbinson and Thomas 
Emry, with their matches light and order to discharge a 
peece, for my retreat at the first sight of any Indian, but 
within a quarter of an houre I heard a loud cry, and a hol- 
lowing of Indians, but no warning peece, supposing them 
surprised, and that the Indians had betraid us, presently 
I seazed him and bound his arme fast to my hand in a 
garter, with my pistoU ready bent to be revenged on him : 
he advised me to fly and seemed ignorant of what was 
done, but as we went discoursing, I was struck with an ar- 
row on the right thigh, but without harme : upon this 
occasion I espied 2 Indians drawing their bowes, which I 
prevented in discharging a french pistoll : by that I had 
charged again 3 or 4 more did the like, for the first fell 
downe and fled : at my discharge they did the like, my 
hinde I made my barricade, who offered not to strive, 20 
or 30 arrov/es were shot at me but short, 3 or 4 times I 
had discharged my pistol! ere the king of Pamauck called 
Opeckakenough with 200 men, environed me, each draw- 
ing their bowe, which done they laid them upon the 
ground, yet without shot, my hinde treated betwixt them 
and me of conditions of peace, he discovered me to be 
the captaine, my request was to retire to ye boate, they 
demanded my armes, the rest they saide were slaine, onely 
me they would reserve: the Indian importuned me not to 
shoot. In retiring being in the midst of a low quagmire, 
and minding them more than my steps, I stept fast into 
the quagmire, and also the Indian in drawing me forth : 
thus surprised, I resolved to trie their mercies, my armes 
I caste from me, till which none durst approch me : being 
ceazed on me, they drew me out and led me to the King, 



i6o7] THE CHICICAHOMINY VOYAGE. 10$ 

I presented him with a compasse diall, describing by my 
best meanes the use thereof, whereat he so amazedly ad- 
mired, as he suffered me to proceed in a discourse of the 
roundnes of the earth, the course of the sunne, moone, 
starres and plannets, with kinde speeches and bread he 
requited me, conducting me where the canow lay and 
John Robinson slaine, with 20 or 30 arrowes in him. 
Emry I saw not, I perceived by the abundance of fires 
all over the woods, at each place I expected when they 
would execute me, yet they used me with what kindnes 
they could : approaching their Towne which was within 
6 miles where I was taken, onely made as arbors and 
covered with mats, which they remove as occasion re- 
quires : all the women and children, being advertised 
of this accident came forth to meet, the King well 
guarded with 20 bow men 5 flanck and rear and each 
flanck before him a sword and a peece, and after him the 
like, then a bowman, then I on each hand a boweman, the 
rest in file in the reare, which reare led forth amongst the 
trees in a bishion, cache his bowe and a handfull of ar- 
rowes, a quiver at his back grimly painted : on cache flanck 
a sargeant, the one running alwaiss towards the front the 
other towards the reare, each a true pace and in exceeding 
good order, this being a good time continued, they caste 
themselves in a ring with a daunce, and so cache man de- 
parted to his lodging, the captain conducting me to his 
lodging, a quarter of Venison and some ten pound of 
bread I had for supper, what I left was reserved for me, and 
sent with me to my lodging: each morning three women 
presented me three great platters of fine bread, more ven- 
ison than ten men could devour I had, my gowne, points and 
garters, my compas and a tablet they gave me again, though 
8 ordinarily guarded me, I wanted not what they could 
devise to content me : and still our longer acquaintance 
increased our better affection : much they threatened to 
assault our forte, as they were solicited by the King of 
Paspahegh, who shewed at our fort great signs of sorrow 
for this mischance : the King took great delight in under- 
standing the manner of our ships and sayling the seas, the 



I06 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

earth and skies and of our God : what he knew of the do- 
minions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certaine 
men cloathed at a place called Ocanahonun, cloathed like 
me, the course of our river, and that within 4 or 5 dales 
journey of the falles, was a great turning of salt water: I 
desired he would send a messenger to Paspahegh, with a 
letter I would write, by which they should understand, 
how kindly they used me, and that I was well, lest they 
should revenge my death ; this he granted and sent three 
men, in such weather, as in reason were unpossible, by 
any naked to be indured : their cruell mindes towards the 
fort I had deverted, in describing the ordinance and the 
mines in the fields, as also the revenge Captain Newport 
would take of them at his returne, their intent, I incerted 
the fort, the people of Ocanahonun and the back sea, this 
report they after found divers Indians that confirmed: the 
next day after my letter, came a salvage to my lodging, 
with his sword to have slaine me, but being by my guard 
intercepted, with a bowe and arrow he offred to have 
effected his purpose : the cause I knew not, till the King 
understanding thereof came and told me of a man a dying 
wounded with my pistoU : he tould me also of another I 
had slayne, yet the most concealed they had any hurte : 
this was the father of him I had slayne, whose fury to 
prevent, the King presently conducted me to another king- 
dome, upon the top of the next northerly river, called 
Youghtanan, having feasted me, he further led me to an- 
other branch of the river called Mattapament, to two 
other hunting townes they led me, and to each of these 
Countries, a house of the great Emperor of Pewhakan, 
whom as yet I supposed to be at the Fals, to him I tolde 
him I must goe, and so returne to Paspahegh, after this 
foure or five dayes march we returned to Rasawrack, the 
first towne they brought me too, where binding the mats in 
bundles, they marched two dayes journey and crossed 
the River of Youghtanan, where it was as broad as 
Thames : so conducting me too a place called Menapacute 
in Pamunke, where ye King inhabited ; the next day an- 
other King of that nation called Kekataugh, having re- 



i6o7] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. IO7 

ceived some kindness of me at the Fort, kindly invited me 
to feast at his house, the people from all places flocked to 
see me, each shewing to content me. By this the great 
King hath foure or fiv^e houses, each containing fourscore 
or an hundred foote in length, pleasantly seated upon an 
high sandy hill, from whence you may see westerly a 
goodly low country, the river before the which his crooked 
course causeth many great Marshes of exceeding good 
ground. An hundred houses, and many large plaines are 
here together inhabited, more abundance of fish and fowle, 
and a pleasanter seat cannot be imagined : the King with 
fortie bowmen to guard me, intreated me to discharge my 
Pistoll, which they there presented me with a mark at six 
score to strike therewith but to spoil the practice I broke 
the cocke, whereat they were much discontented though 
a chaunce supposed. From hence this kind King con- 
ducted me to a place called Topahanocke, a kingdome 
upon another river northward ; the cause of this was, that 
the yeare before, a shippe had beene in the River of Pa- 
munke, who having been kindly entertained by Powhatan 
their Emperour, they returned thence, and discovered the 
River of Topahanocke, where being received with like 
kindnesse, yet he slue the King, and tooke of his people, 
and they supposed I were hee, but the people reported 
him a great man that was Captaine, and using mee kindly, 
the next day we departed. This River of Topahanock, 
seemeth in breadth not much lesse than that we dwell 
upon. At the mouth of the River is a Countrey called 
Guttata women, upwards is Marraugh tacum Tapohanock, 
Appamatuck, and Nantaugs tacum, at Topmanahocks. the 
head issuing from many Mountains, the next night I 
lodged at a hunting town of Powhatam's, and the next 
day arrived at Waranacomoco upon the river of Pa- 
mauncke, where the great king is resident : by the way we 
passed by the top of another little river, which is betwixt 
the two called Payankatank. The most of this country 
though Desert, yet exceeding fertil, good timber, most hils 
and m dales, in each valley a cristall spring. 

" Arriving at Weramacomoco, their Emperour, proudly 



loB CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28 

lying upon a Bedstead a foote high upon tenne or twelve 
Mattes, richly hung with manie Chaynes of great Pearles 
about his necke, and covered with a great covering of Ra- 
haughcums : At heade sat a woman, at his feete another, 
on each side sitting upon a Matte upon the ground were 
raunged his chiefe men on each side the fire, tenne in a 
ranke and behinde them as many yong women, each a 
great Chaine of white Beades over their shoulders : their 
heades painted in redde and with such a grave and Ma- 
jesticall countenance, as drove me into admiration to see 
such state in a naked Salvage, hee kindly welcomed me 
with good v/ordes, and great Platters of sundrie victuals, 
assuring mee his friendship and my libertie within foure 
dayes, hee much delighted in Opechan Conough's relation 
of what I had described to him, and oft examined me 
upon the same. Hee asked me the cause of our comming, I 
tolde him being in fight with the Spaniards our enemie, 
being over powred, neare put to retreat, and by extreme 
weather put to this shore, where landing at Chesipiack, 
the people shot us, but at Kequoughtan they kindly used 
us, wee by signes demaunded fresh water, they described 
us up the River was all fresh water, at Paspahegh, also 
they kindly used us, our Pinnasse being leake wee were 
inforced to stay to mend her, till Captan Newport my 
father came to conduct us away. He demaunded why we 
went further with our Boate, I tolde him, in that I would 
have occasion to talke of the backe Sea, that on the other 
side the maine, where was salt water, my father had a 
childe slaine, which we supposed Monocan his enemie, 
whose death we intended to revenge. After good delib- 
eration, hee began to describe me the countreys beyond 
the Falles, with many of the rest, confirming what not 
only Opechancanoyes, and an Indian which had been 
prisoner to Pewhatan had before tolde mee, but some 
called it five days, some sixe, some eight, where the sayde 
water dashed amongst many stones and rocks, each storme 
which caused oft tymes the heade of the River to bee 
brackish : Anchanachuck he described to bee the people 
that had slaine my brother, whose death hee would re- 



I607-8J THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. lOQ 

venge. Hee described also upon the same Sea, a mighty 
nation called Pocoughtronack, a fierce nation that did 
eate men and warred with the people of Moyaoncer, and 
Pataromerke, Nations upon the toppe of the heade of the 
Bay, under his territories, where the yeare before they had 
slain an hundred, he signified their crownes were shaven, 
long haire in the necke, tied on a knot, Swords like Pol- 
laxes. 

" Beyond them he described people with short Coates, 
and Sleeves to the Elbowes, that passed that way in Shippes 
like ours. Many Kingdomes hee described mee to the 
heade of the Bay, which seemed to bee a mightie River, 
issuing from mightie mountaines, betwixt the two seas; 
the people clothed at Ocamahowan. He also confirmed, 
and the Southerly Countries also, as the rest, that reported 
us to be within a day and a halfe of Mangoge, two dayes 
of Chawwonock, 6 from Roonock, to the South part of the 
backe sea : he described a countrie called Anone, where 
they have abundance of Brasse, and houses walled as 
ours. I requited his discourse, seeing what pride he 
had in his great and spacious Dominions, seeing that 
all hee knewe were under his Territories. 

In describing to him the territories of Europe which 
was subject to our great King whose subject I was, the in- 
numerable multitude of his ships, I gave him to understand 
the noyse of Trumpets and terrible manner of fighting 
were under Captain Newport my father, whom I intituled 
the Meworames which they call King of all the waters, at 
his greatnesse hee admired and not a little feared ; he de- 
sired mee to forsake Paspaliegh, and to live with him upon 
his River, a countrie called Capa Howasicke; he promised 
to give me corne, venison, or what I wanted to feede us, 
Hatchets and Copper wee should make him, and none 
should disturbe us. This request I promised to performe : 
and thus having with all the kindnes hee could devise, 
sought to content me, he sent me home with 4 men, one 
that usually carried my Gonne and Knapsacke after me, 
two other loded with bread, and one to accompanie me." 
The next extract in regard to this voyage is from 



no CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

President Wingfield's '' Discourse of Virginia," 
which appears partly in the form of a diary, but 
was probably drawn up or at least finished shortly 
after Wingfield's return to London in May, 1608. 
He was in Jamestown when Smith returned from 
his captivity, and would be likely to allude to the 
romantic story of Pocahontas if Smith had told it 
on his escape. We quote: 

" Decern. — The loth of December, Mr. Sm3'th went up 
the ryver of the Chechohomynies to trade for corne ; he was 
desirous to see the heade of that river; and, when it was 
not passible with the shallop, he hired a cannow and an 
Indian to carry him up further. The river the higher 
grew worse and worse. Then hee went on shoare with his 
guide, and left Robinson and Emmery, and twoe of our 
Men, in the cannow ; which were presently slayne by the 
Indians, Pamaonke's men, and hee himself taken prysoner, 
and, by the means of his guide, his lief was saved ; and 
Pamaonche, haveing him prisoner, carryed him to his ney- 
bors wyroances, to see if any of them knew him for one of 
those which had bene, some two or three yeeres before 
us, in a river amongst them Northward, and taken awaie 
some Indians from them by force. At last he brought 
him to the great Powaton (of whome before wee had no 
knowledg), who sent him home to our towne the 8th of 
January." 

The next contemporary document to which we 
have occasion to refer is Smith's Letter to the 
Treasurer and Council of Virginia in England, writ- 
ten in Virginia after the arrival of Newport there in 
September, 1608, and probably sent home by him 
near the close of that year. In this there is no 
occasion for a reference to Powhatan or his daugh- 
ter, but he says in it: " I have sent you this Mappe 
of the Bay and Rivers, with an annexed Relation 
of the Countryes and Nations that inhabit them as 



i6o7-8] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. Ill 

you may see at large." This is doubtless the " Map 
of Virginia," with a description of the country, pub- 
lished some two or three years after Smith's return 
to England, at Oxford, 1612. It is a description of 
the country and people, and contains little narra- 
tive. But with this was published, as an appendix, 
an account of the proceedings of the Virginia colo- 
nists from 1606 to 16 1 2, taken out of the writings 
of Thomas Studley and several others who had 
been residents in Virginia. These several discourses 
were carefully edited by William Symonds, a doctor 
of divinity and a man of learning and repute, evi- 
dently at the request of Smith. To the end of the 
volume Dr. Symonds appends a note addressed to 
Smith, saying: " I return you the fruit of my labors, 
as Mr. Cranshaw requested me, which I bestowed 
in reading the discourses and hearing the relations 
of such as have walked and observed the land of 
Virginia with you." These narratives by Smith's 
companions, which he made a part of his Oxford 
book, and which passed under his eye and had his 
approval, are uniformly not only friendly to him, 
but eulogistic of him, and probably omit no inci- 
dent known to the writers which would do him 
honor or add interest to him as a knight of romance. 
Nor does it seem probable that Smith himself would 
have omitted to mention the dramatic scene of the 
prevented execution if it had occurred to him. If 
there had been a reason in the minds of others in 
1608 why it should not appear in the "True Rela- 
tion," that reason did not exist for Smith at this 
time, when the discords and discouragements of the 
colony were fully known. And by this time the 
young girl Pocahontas had become well known to 
the colonists at Jamestown. The account of this 



112 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

Chickahominy voyage given in this volume, pub- 
lished in 1612, is signed by Thomas Studley, and is 
as follows: 

" The next voyage he proceeded so farre that with much 
labour by cutting of trees in sunder he made his passage, 
but when his Barge could passe no farther, he left her in a 
broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding none should 
goe ashore till his returne; himselfe with 2 English and 
two Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not 
long absent, but his men went ashore, whose want of 
government gave both occasion and opportunity to the 
Salvages to surprise one George Casso?i, and much failed 
not to have cut of the boat and all the rest. Smz'tk little 
dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the 
river's head, 20 miles in the desert, had his 2 men slaine 
(as is supposed) sleeping by the Canowe, whilst himselfe 
by fowling sought them victual, who finding he was beset 
by 200 Salvages, 2 of them he slew, stil defending him- 
selfe with the aid of a Salvage his guid (whome hee bound 
to his arme and used as his buckler), till at last slipping 
into a bogmire they tooke him prisoner: when this news 
came to the fort much was their sorrow for his losse, fewe 
expecting what ensued. A month those Barbarians kept 
him prisoner, many strange triumphs and conjurations 
they made of him, yet he so demeaned himselfe amongst 
them, as he not only diverted them from surprising the 
Fort, but procured his own liberty, and got himselfe and 
his company such estimation amongst them, that those 
Salvages admired him as a demi-God. So returning safe 
to the Fort, once more staied the pinnas her flight for 
England, which til his returne could not set saile, so ex- 
treme was the weather and so great the frost." 

The first allusion to the salvation of Capt. Smith 
by Pocahontas occurs in a letter or " little booke" 
which he wrote to Queen Anne in 1616, about the 
time of the arrival in England of the Indian Princess, 
who was then called the Lady Rebecca, and was 



i6o7-8] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. II3 

wife of John Rolfe, by whom she had a son, who 
accompanied them. Pocahontas had by this time 
become a person of some importance. Her friend- 
ship had been of substantial service to the colony. 
Smith had acknowledged this in his " True Rela- 
tion," where he referred to her as the "nonpareil" 
of Virginia. He was kind-hearted and naturally 
magnanimous, and would take some pains to do 
the Indian convert a favor, even to the invention 
of an incident that would make her attractive. To 
be sure, he was vain as well as inventive, and here 
was an opportunity to attract the attention of his 
sovereign and increase his own importance by con- 
necting his name with hers in a romantic manner. 
Still, we believe that the main motive that dictated 
this epistle was kindness to Pocahontas. The sen- 
tence that refers to her heroic act is this: ''After 
some six weeks [he was absent only four weeks] 
fatting amongst those Salvage Countries, at the 
minute of my execution she hazarded the beating out 
of her own braines to save mine, and not only that, 
but so prevailed with her father [of whom he says, 
in a previous paragraph, " I received from this great 
Salvage exceeding great courtesie"], that I was 
safely conducted to Jamestown." 

This guarded allusion to the rescue stood for all 
known account of it, except a brief reference to it 
in his ''New England's Trials" of 1622, until the 
appearance ot Smith's " General Historic" in Lon- 
don, 1624. In the first edition of " New England's 
Trials," 1620, there is no reference to it. In the en- 
larged edition of 1622, Smith gives a new version 
to his capture, as resulting from " the folly of them 
that fled," and says: "God made Pocahontas, the 
King's daughter, the means to deliver me." 



114 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

The " General Historic" was compiled — as was 
the custom in making up such books at the time — 
from a great variety of sources. Such parts of it 
as are not written by Smith — and these constitute 
a considerable portion of the history — bear marks 
here and there of his touch. It begins with his 
description of Virginia, which appeared in the 
Oxford tract of 161 2; following this are the several 
narratives by his comrades, which formed the ap- 
pendix of that tract. The one that concerns us 
here is that already quoted, signed Thomas Stud- 
ley. It is reproduced here as " written by Thomas 
Studley, the first Cape Merchant in Virginia, Rob- 
ert Fenton, Edward Harrington, and I. S." [John 
Smith]. It is, however, considerably extended, and 
into it is interjected a detailed account of the cap- 
tivity and the story of the stones, the clubs, and the 
saved brains. 

It is worthy of special note that the " True Rela- 
tion" is not incorporated in the "General Historic." 
This is the more remarkable because it was an 
original statement, written when the occurrences it 
describes were fresh, and is much more in detail 
regarding many things that happened during the 
period it covered than the narratives that Smith 
uses in the "General Historic." It was his habit 
to use over and over again his own publications. 
Was this discarded because it contradicted the 
Pocahontas story — because that story could not 
be fitted into it as it could be into the Studley 
relation ? 

It should be added, also, that Purchas printed an 
abstract of the Oxford tract in his " Pilgrimage," in 
1613, from material furnished him by Smith. The 
Oxford tract was also republished by Purchas in 



l6o7-8] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. II5 

his " Pilgrimes," extended by new matter ia manU' 
script supplied by Smith. The " Pilgrimes" did 
not appear till 1625, a year after the " General His- 
torie," but was in preparation long before. The 
Pocahontas legend appears in the " Pilgrimes," but 
not in the earlier "Pilgrimage." 

We have before had occasion to remark* that 
Smith's memory had the peculiarity of growing 
stronger and more minute in details the further he 
was removed in point of time from any event he 
describes. The revamped narrative is worth quot- 
ing in full for other reasons. It exhibits Smith's 
skill as a writer and his capacity for rising into 
poetic moods. This is the story from the " General 
Historic": 

" The next voyage hee proceeded so farre that with much 
labour by cutting of trees in sunder he made his passage, 
but when his Barge could pass no farther, he left her in a 
broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding none should 
goe ashore till his return: himselfe with two English and 
two Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was 
not long absent, but his men went ashore, whose want of 
government, gave both occasion and opportunity to the 
Salvages to surprise one George Cassen, whom they slew, 
and much failed not to have cut of the boat and all the 
rest. Smith little dreaming of that accident, being got to 
the marshes at the river's head, twentie myles in the des- 
ert, had his two men slaine (as is supposed) sleeping by 
the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought them vic- 
tuall, who finding he was beset with 200 Salvages, two oi 
them hee slew, still defending himself with the ayd of a 
Salvage his guide, whom he bound to his arme with his 
garters, and used him as a buckler, yet he was shot in his 
thigh a little, and had manyarrowes stucke in hiscloathes 
but no great hurt, till at last they tooke him prisoner. 
When this newes came to James towne, much was their 
sorrow for his losse, fewe expecting what ensued. Sixe or 



Il6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

seven weekes those Barbarians kept him prisoner, many 
strange triumphes and conjurations they made of him, 
yet hee so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he not 
onely diverted them from surprising the Fort, but pro- 
cured his owne libertie, and got himself and his company 
such estimation amongst them, that those Salvages ad- 
mired him more than their owne Qtiiyouckosucks. The 
manner how they used and delivered him, is as followeth. 
" The Salvages having drawne from George Cassen wheth- 
er Captaine Sinith was gone, prosecuting that opportunity 
they followed him with 300 bowmen, conducted by the 
YJmgoi Pamaicnkee,v^\\o in divisions searching the turn- 
ings of the river, found Robinso7i and Emry by the fireside, 
those they shot full of arrowes and slew. Then finding 
the Captaine as is said, that used the Salvage that was his 
guide as his sheld* (three of them being slaine and divers 
others so gauld) all the rest would not come neere him. 
Thinking thus to have returned to his boat, regarding 
them, as he marched, more then his way, slipped up to 
the middle in an oasie creeke and his Salvage with him, 
yet durst they not come to him till being neere dead with 
cold, he threw away his armes. Then according to their 
composition they drew him forth and led him to the fire, 
where his men were slaine. Diligentl)^ they chafed his 
benumbed limbs. He demanding for their Captaine, they 
shewed him Opechankanoicgh, King of Pamaunkee, to 
whom he gave a round Ivory double compass Dyall. 
Much they marvailed at the playing of the Fly and Nee- 
dle, which they could see so plainly, and yet not touch it, 
because of the glass that covered them. But when he 
demonstrated by that Globe-like Jewell, the roundnesse of 
the earth and skies, the spheare of the Sunne, Moone, and 
Starres, and how the Sunne did chase the night round 
about the world continually : the greatnesse of the Land 
and Sea, the diversitie of Nations, varietie of Complexions, 
and how we were to them Antipodes, and many other 
such like matters, they all stood as amazed with admira- 
tion. Notwithstanding within an houre after they tyed 
him to a tree, and as many as could stand about him pre- 



1607-8] THE CHICK A HOMINY VOYAGE. 11/ 

pared to shoot him, but the King holding up the Com- 
pass in his hand, they all laid dovvne their Bowes and Ar- 
rowes, and in a triumphant manner led him to Orapaks, 
where he was after their manner kindly feasted and well 
used. 

"Their order in conducting him was thus: Drawing 
themselves all in fyle, the King in the middest had all their 
Peeces and Swords borne before him. Captaine Smith was 
led after him by three great Salvages, holding him fast by 
each arme : and on each side six went in fyle with their 
arrowes nocked. But arriving at the Towne (which was 
but onely thirtie or fortie hunting houses made of Mats, 
which they remove as they please, as we our tents) all the 
women and children staring to behold him, the souldiers 
first all in file performed the forme of a Bissom so well as 
could be : and on each flanke, officers as Serieants to see 
them keepe their orders. A good time they continued this 
exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dauncing in 
such severall Postures, and singing and yelling out such 
hellish notes and screeches : being strangely painted, every 
one his quiver of arrowes, and at his backe a club : on his 
arme a Fox or an Otters skinne, or some such matter for 
his vambrace : their heads and shoulders painted red, 
with oyle and Pocones mingled together, which Scarlet 
like colour made an exceeding handsome shew, his Bow 
in his hand, and the skinne of a Bird with her wings 
abroad dryed, tyed on his head, a peece of copper, a white 
shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the 
tayles of their snaks tyed to it, or some such like toy. 
All this time Smith and the King stood in the middest 
guarded, as before is said, and after three dances they all 
departed. Smith they conducted to a long house, where 
thirtie or fortie tall fellowes did guard him, and ere long 
more bread and venison were brought him then would 
have served twentie men. I thinke his stomacke at that 
time was not very good ; what he left they put in baskets 
and tyed over his head. About midnight they set the 
meat again before him, all this time not one of them would 
eat a bit with him, till the next morning they brought him 



Il8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

as much more, and then did they eate all the old, and 
reserved the new as they had done the other, which made 
him think they would fat him to eat him. Yet in this 
desperate estate to defend him from the cold, one Maocas- 
sater brought him his gowne, in requitall of some beads 
and toyes Smith had given him at his first arrivall in Vir- 
ginia. 

" Two days a man would have slaine him (but that the 
guard prevented it) for the death of his sonne, to whom 
they conducted him to recover the poore man then breath- 
ing his last. Smith told them that at James towne he 
had a water would doe it if they would let him fetch it, 
but they would not permit that : but made all the prepara- 
tions they could to assault Jajues towne, craving his ad- 
vice, and for recompence he should have life, libertie, 
land, and women. In part of a Table booke he writ his 
mind to them at the Fort, what was intended, how they 
should follow that direction to affright the messengers, 
and without fayle send him such things as he writ for. 
And an Inventory with them. The difhcultie and danger 
he told the Salvages, of the Mines, great gunnes, and other 
Engins, exceedingly affrighted them, yet according to his 
request they went to James towne in as bitter weather as 
could be of frost and snow, and within three days returned 
with an answer. 

" But when they came to James towne, seeing men sally 
out as he had told them they would, they fled : yet in the 
night they came again to the same place where he had 
told them they should receive an answer, and such things 
as he had promised them, which they found accordingly, 
and with which they returned with no small expedition, to 
the wonder of them all that heard it, that he could either 
divine or the paper could speake. Then they led him to 
the Yoiithtanimds, the Mattapanie?its, the Payajikataiiks, 
the Natitaughtacii7ids and Onawmanients, upon the rivers 
of Rapahanock and Patawomek, over all those rivers and 
backe againe by divers other severall Nations, to the King's 
habitation at Pamaunkee, where they entertained him with 
most strange and fearefull conjurations ; 



i6o7-8] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. II9 

' As if neare led to hell, 
Amongst the Devils to dwell,' 

Not long after, early in a morning, a great fire was 
made in a long house, and a mat spread on the one side 
as on the other; on the one they caused him to sit, and 
all the guard went out of the house, and presently came 
skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted over with coale 
mingled with oyle ; and many Snakes and Wesels skins 
stuffed with mosse, and all their tayles tyed together, so 
as they met on the crowne of his head in a tassell ; and 
round about the tassell was a Coronet of feathers, the 
skins hanging round about his head, backe, and shoulders, 
and in a manner covered his face ; with a hellish voyce and 
a rattle in his hand. With most strange gestures and 
passions he began his invocation, and environed the fire 
with a circle of meale ; which done three more such like 
devils came rushing in with the like antique tricks, paint- 
ed halfe blacke, halfe red : but all their eyes were painted 
white, and some red stroakes like Mutchato's along their 
cheekes : round about him those fiends daunced a pretty 
while, and then came in three more as ugly as the rest ; 
with red eyes and stroakes over their blacke faces, at 
last they all sat downe right against him ; three of them 
on the one hand of the chiefe Priest, and three on the 
other. Then all with their rattles began a song, which 
ended, the chiefe Priest layd downe five wheat comes : then 
strayning his arms and hands with such violence that he 
sweat, and his veynes swelled, he began a short Oration : 
at the conclusion they all gave a short groane ; and then 
layd downe three graines more. After that began their 
song againe, and then another Oration, ever laying down 
so many cornes as before, til they had twice incirculed the 
fire ; that done they tooke a bunch of little stickes pre- 
pared for that purpose, continuing still their devotion, and 
at the end of every song and Oration they layd downe a 
sticke betwixt the divisions of Corne. Til night, neither 
he nor they did either eate or drinke, and then they feast- 
ed merrily, and with the best provisions they could make. 
Three dayes they used this Ceremony : the meaning whereof 



120 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [iEt. 28-29 

they told him was to know if he intended them well or no. 
The circle of meale signified their Country, the circles of 
corne the bounds of the Sea, and the stickes his Country. 
They imagined the world to be flat and round, like a 
trencher, and they in the middest. After this they brought 
him a bagge of gunpowder, which they carefully preserved 
till the next spring, to plant as they did their corne, be- 
cause they would be acquainted with the nature of that 
seede. Opitchapam, the King's brother, invited him to 
his house, where with many platters of bread, foule, and 
wild beasts, as did inviron him, he bid him wellcome : but 
not any of them would eate a bit with him, but put up all 
the remainder in Baskets. At his returne to Opechanca- 
noughs, all the King's women and their children flocked 
about him for their parts, as a due by Custome, to be 
merry with such fragments. 

" ' But his waking mind in hydeous dreames did oft see won- 
drous shapes 
Of bodies strange, and huge in growth, and of stupendious 
makes.' 

At last they brought him to Meronocoinoco, where was 
Powhatan their Emperor. Here more than two hundred 
of those grim Courtiers stood wondering at him, as he 
had beene a monster, till Powhatan and his trayne had 
put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire 
upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great 
robe, made of Rarowcu7i skinnes and all the tayles hang- 
ing by. On either hand did sit a young wench of sixteen 
or eighteen years, and along on each side the house, two 
rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all 
their heads and shoulders painted red ; many of their 
heads bedecked with the white downe of Birds ; but every- 
one with something : and a great chayne of white beads 
about their necks. At his entrance before the King, all 
the people gave a great shout. The Queene of Appama- 
tuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, 
and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a 
Towell to dry them : having feasted him after their best 



1 607-8] THE CHICKAHOMIN V VO YA GE. 121 

barbarous manner they could. A long consultation was 
held, but the conclusion was two great stones were brought 
before Powhatan ; then as many as could layd hands on 
him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and 
being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines. 
Pocahontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty 
could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her 
owne upon his to save him from death : whereat the Em- 
perour was contented he should live to make him hatch- 
ets, and her bells, beads, and copper : for they thought 
him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the 
King himselfe will make his owne robes, shooes, bowes, 
arrowes, pots, plant, hunt, or doe any thing so well as the 
rest. 

*' ' They say he bore a pleasant shew, 

But sure his heart was sad 

For who can pleasant be, and rest, 

That lives in feare and dread. 

And having life suspected, doth 

If still suspected lead.' 

Two days after, Powhatan having disguised himselfe in 
the most fearfullest manner he could, caused Capt. Smith 
to be brought forth to a great house in the woods and there 
upon a mat by the fire to be left alone. Not long after 
from behinde a mat that divided the house, was made the 
most dolefullest noyse he ever heard : then Powhatan 
more like a devill than a man with some two hundred 
more as blacke as himselfe, came unto him and told him 
now they were friends, and presently he should goe to 
James town, to send him two great gunnes, and a grynd- 
stone, for which he would give him the country of Capa- 
howosick, and for ever esteeme him as his sonn Nanta- 
quoud. So to Ja?nes towne with 12 guides Powhata7i sent 
him. That night they quartered in the woods, he still 
expecting (as he had done all this long time of his im- 
prisonment) every houre to be put to one death or other; 
for all their feasting. But almightie God (by his divine 
providence) had mollified the hearts of those sterne Bar- 



122 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

barians with compassion. The next morning betimes 
they came to the Fort, where Smith having used the sal- 
vages with what kindnesse he could, he shewed Raivhtmt, 
Po'whata7i strnsty servant, two demi-culverings and a mill- 
stone to carry Powhatan; they found them somewhat too 
heavie ; but when they did see him discharge them, being 
loaded with stones, among the boughs of a great tree 
loaded with Isickles, the yce and branches came so tum- 
bling downe, that the poore Salvages ran away halfe dead 
with feare. But at last we regained some conference Vv^ith 
them and gave them such toys : and sent to Powhatan, his 
women, and children such presents, and gave them in gen- 
erall full content. Now in James Towne they were all in 
combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away 
with the Pinnace ; which with the hazard of his life, with 
Sakre falcon and musket-shot. Smith forced now the third 
time to stay or sinke. Some no better then they should be 
had plotted with the President, the next day to have put 
him to death by the Leviticall law, for the lives of Robinson 
and Entry, pretending the fault was his that had led them to 
their ends ; but he quickly tooke such order with such 
Lawyers, that he layed them by the heeles till he sent some 
of them prisoners for England. Now ever once in four or 
five dayes, Pocahofttas with her attendants, brought him 
so much provision, that saved many of their lives, that els 
for all this had starved with hunger. 

' Thus from numbe death our good God sent reliefe, 
The sweete asswager of all other griefe.' 

His relation of the plenty he had seene, especially at IVer- 
awocojnoco, and of the state and bountie of Powhatan 
(which till that time was unknowne), so revived their dead 
spirits (especially the love of Pocahontas) as all men's 
feare was abandoned." 

We should like to think original, in the above, the fine 
passage, in which Smith, by means of a simple com- 
pass dial, demonstrated the roundness of the earth, and 



i6o7-8] THE CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE. 1 23 

skies, the sphere of the sun, moon and stars, and how 
the sun did chase the night round about the world 
continually ; the greatness of the land and sea, the 
diversity of nations, variety of complexions, and how 
we were to them antipodes, so that the Indians stood 
amazed with admiration. Capt. Smith up to his mid- 
dle in a Chickahominy swamp, discoursing on these 
high themes to a Pamunky Indian, of whose language 
Smith was wholly ignorant, and who did not under- 
stand a word of English, is much more heroic, con- 
sidering the adverse circumstances, and appeals more 
to the imagination, than the long-haired lopas singing 
the song of Atlas, at the banquet given to ^neas, 
whereTrojans and Tyrians drained the flowing bumpers 
while Dido drank long draughts of love. Did Smith, 
when he was in the neighborhood of Carthage pick 
up some such literal translations of the song of Atlas* 
as this : 

" He sang the wandering moon, and the labors of the Sun; 
From whence the race of men and flocks; whence rain and 

lightning ; 
Of Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the twin Triones; 
Why the winter suns hasten so much to touch themselves in 

the ocean, 
And what delay retards the slow nights." 

The scene of the rescue only occupies seven lines, 
and the reader feels that after all Smith has not done 
full justice to it. We cannot, therefore, better con- 
clude this romantic episode than by quoting the de- 
scription of it given with an elaboration of language 
that must be pleasing to the shade of Smith, by John 
Burke in his History of Virginia : 

* Virgil's ^neid, Book I. "Hie canit errantem lunam." 



124 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-29 

" Two large stones were brought in, and placed at the feet 
of the emperor ; and on them was laid the head of the 
prisoner ; next a large club was brought in, with which 
Powhatan, for whom, out of respect, was reserved this 
honor, prepared to crush the head of his captive. The as- 
sembly looked on with sensations of awe, probably not 
unmixed with pity for the fate of an enemy whose bravery- 
had commanded their admiration, and in whose misfor- 
tunes their hatred was possibly forgotten. 

" The fatal club was uplifted : the breasts of the company 
already by anticipation felt the dreadful crash, which was 
to bereave the wretched victim of life : when the young 
and beautiful Pocahontas, the beloved daughter of the 
emperor, with a shriek of terror and agony threw herself 
on the body of Smith. Her hair was loose, and her eyes 
streaming with tears, while her whole manner bespoke 
the deep distress and agony of her bosom. She cast a 
beseeching look at her furious and astonished father, dep- 
recating his wrath, and imploring his pity and the life of 
his prisoner, with all the eloquence of mute but impas- 
sioned sorrow. 

" The remainder of this scene is honorable to Powhatan. 
It will remain a lasting monument, that tho' different prin- 
ciples of action, and the influence of custom, have given 
to the manners and opinions of this people an appearance 
neither amiable nor virtuous, they still retain the noblest 
property of human character, the touch of pity and the 
feeling of humanity. 

" The club of the emperor was still uplifted ; but pity had 
touched his bosom, and his eye was every moment losing 
its fierceness ; he looked around to collect his fortitude, 
or perhaps to find an excuse for his weakness in the faces 
of his attendants. But every eye was suffused with the 
sweetly contagious softness. The generous savage no 
longer hesitated. The compassion of the rude state is 
neither ostentatious nor dilating: nor does it insult its 
object by the exaction of impossible conditions. Pow- 
hatan lifted his grateful and delighted daughter, and the 
captive, scarcely yet assured of safety, from the earth." — 



i607-8] THE CHICKAIIOMINY VOYAGE. 1 25 

" The character of this interesting woman, as it stands 
in the concurrent accounts of all our historians, is not, it 
is with confidence affirmed, surpassed by any in the whole 
range of history ; and for those qualities more especially 
which do honor to our nature — an humane and feeling 
heart, an ardor and unshaken constancy in her attach- 
ments — she stands almost without a rival, 

"At the first appearance of the Europeans her young 
heart was impressed with admiration of the persons and 
manners of the sttangers ; but it is not during their pros- 
perity that she displays her attachment. She is not influ- 
enced by awe of their greatness, or fear of their resent- 
ment, in the assistance she affords them. It was during 
their severest distresses, when their most celebrated chief 
was a captive in their hands, and was dragged through 
the country as a spectacle for the sport and derision of 
their people, that she places herself between him and 
destruction. 

" The spectacle of Pocahontas in an attitude of entreaty, 
wifeh her hair loose, and her eyes streaming with tears, 
supplicating with her enraged father for the life of Cap- 
tain Smith when he was about to crush the head of his 
prostrate victim with a club, is a situation equal to the 
genius of Raphael. And when the royal savage directs 
his ferocious glance for a moment from his victim to re- 
prove his weeping daughter, when softened by her dis- 
tress his eye loses its fierceness, and he gives his captive 
to her tears, the painter will discover a new occasion for 
exercising his talents." 

The painters have availed themselves of this oppor- 
tunity. In one picture Smith is represented stiffly 
extended on the greensward (of the woods), his head 
resting on a stone, appropriately clothed in a dress- 
coat, knee-breeches, and silk stockings ; while Pow- 
hatan and the other savages stand ready for murder, 
in full-dress parade costume ; and Pocahontas, a full- 
grown woman, with long, disheveled hair, in the 
sentimental dress and attitude of a Letitia E. Lan- 



126 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 28-2() 

don of the period, is about to cast herself upon the 
imperiled and well-dressed Captain. 

Must we, then, give up the legend altogether, on 
account of the exaggerations that have grown up 
about it, our suspicion of the creative memory of 
Smith, and the lack of all contemporary allusion to it? 
It is a pity to destroy any pleasing story of the past, 
and especially to discharge our hard struggle for a 
foothold on this continent of the few elements of ro- 
mance. If we can find no evidence of its truth that 
stands the test of fair criticism, we may at least believe 
that it had some slight basis on which to rest. It is 
not at all improbable that Pocahontas, who was at 
that time a precocious maid of perhaps twelve or thir- 
teen years of age (although Smith mentions her as a 
child of ten years old when she came to the camp 
after his release), was touched with compassion for 
the captive, and did influence her father to treat him 
kindly. 



CHAPTER IX. 

smith's way with the INDIANS. 

AS we are not endeavoring to write the early history 
of Virginia, but only to trace Smith's share in it, 
we proceed with his exploits after the arrival of the 
first supply, consisting of near a hundred men, in two 
ships, one commanded by Capt. Newport and the 
other by Capt. Francis Nelson. The latter, when in 
sight of Cape Henry, was driven by a storm back to 
the West Indies, and did not arrive at James River 
with his vessel, the Phoenix^ till after the departure of 
Newport for England with his load of "gold-dust," 
and Master Wingfield and Capt. Arthur. 

In his "True Relation," Smith gives some account 
of his exploration of the Pamunky River, which he 
sometimes calls the " Youghtamand," upon which, 
where the water is salt, is the town of Werowocomoco. 
It can serve no purpose in elucidating the character 
of our hero to attempt to identify all the places he 
visited. 

It was at Werowocomoco that Smith observed cer- 
tain conjurations of the medicine men, which he sup- 
posed had reference to his fate. From ten o'clock in 
the morning till six at night, seven of the savages, with 
rattles in their hands, sang and danced about the fire, 
laying down grains of corn in circles, and with vehe- 
ment actions, casting cakes of deer suet, deer, and 
tobacco into the fire, howling without ceasing. One 
of them was " disfigured with a great skin, his head 



128 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

hung around with little skins of weasels and other 
vermin, with a crownlet of feathers on his head, painted 
as ugly as the devil." So fat they fed him that he 
much doubted they intended to sacrifice him to the 
Quiyoughquosicke, which is a superior power they 
worship: a more uglier thing cannot be described. 
These savages buried their dead with great sorrow 
and weeping, and they acknowledge no resurrection. 
Tobacco they offer to the water to secure a good 
passage in foul weather. The descent of the crown is 
to the first heirs of the king's sisters, " for the kings 
have as many women as they will, the subjects two, 
and most but one." 

After Smith's return, as we have read, he was saved 
from a plot to take his life by the timely arrival of 
Capt. Newport. Somewhere about this time the great 
fire occurred. Smith was now one of the Council; 
Martin and Matthew Scrivener, just named, were also 
councilors. Ratcliffe was still President. The sav- 
ages, owing to their acquaintance with and confidence 
in Capt. Smith, sent in abundance of provision. 
Powhatan sent once or twice a week " deer, bread, 
raugroughcuns (probably not to be confounded with 
the rahaughcuns [raccoons] spoken of before, but 
probably * rawcomens,' mentioned in the Description 
of Virginia), half for Smith, and half for his father, 
Capt. Newport." Smith had, in his intercom se with 
the natives, extolled the greatness of Newport, so that 
they conceived him to be the chief and all the rest 
his children, and regarded him as an oracle, if not a 
god. 

Powhatan and the rest had, therefore, a great desire 
to see this mighty person. Smith says that the Presi- 
dent and Council greatly envied his reputation with 
the Indians, and wrought upon them to believe. 



i6o8] SMITH'S WAY WITH THE INDIANS. 1 29 

by giving in trade four times as much as the price set 
by Smith, that their authority exceeded his as much as 
their bounty. 

We must give Smith the credit of being usually 
intent upon the building up of the colony, and estab- 
lishing permanent and livable relations with the 
Indians, while many of his companions in authority 
seemed to regard the adventure as a temporary occur- 
rence, out of which they would make what personal 
profit they could. The new-comers on a vessel always 
demoralized the trade with the Indians, by paying 
extravagant prices. Smith's relations with Capt. New- 
port were peculiar. While he magnified him to the 
Indians as the great power, he does not conceal his 
own opinion of his ostentation and want of shrewd- 
ness. Smith's attitude was that of a priest who puts 
up for the worship of the vulgar an idol, which he 
knows is only a clay image stuffed with straw. 

In the great joy of the colony at the arrival of the 
first supply, leave was given to sailors to trade with 
the Indians, and the new-comers soon so raised prices 
that it needed a pound of copper to buy a quantity of 
provisions that before had been obtained for an ounce. 
Newport sent great presents to Powhatan, and, in 
response to the wish of the "Emperor," prepared to 
visit him. "A great coyle there was to set him for- 
ward," says Smith. Mr. Scrivener and Capt. Smith, 
and a guard of thirty or forty, accompanied him. On 
this expedition they found the mouth of the Pamaunck 
(now York) River. Arriving at Werowocomoco, New- 
port, fearing treachery, sent Smith with twenty men to 
land and make a preliminary visit. When they came 
ashore they found a network of creeks which were 
crossed by very shaky bridges, constructed of crotched 
sticks and poles, which had so much the appearance 



130 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [^t. 29 

of traps that Smith would not cross them until many 
of the Indians had preceded him, while he kept others 
with him as hostages. Three hundred savages con- 
ducted him to Powhatan, who received him in great 
state. Before his house were ranged forty or fifty 
great platters of fine bread. Entering his house, " with 
loude tunes they made all signs of great joy." In the 
first account Powhatan is represented as surrounded 
by his principal women and chief men, " as upon a 
throne at the upper end of the house, with such majesty 
as I cannot express, nor yet have often seen, either 
in Pagan or Christian." In the later account he is 
"sitting upon his bed of mats, his pillow of leather 
embroidered (after their rude manner with pearls and 
white beads), his attire a fair robe of skins as large 
as an Irish mantel; at his head and feet a hand- 
some young woman; on each side of his house sat 
twenty of his concubines, their heads and shoulders 
painted red, with a great chain of white beads about 
each of their necks. Before those sat his chiefest men 
in like order in his arbor-like house." This is the scene 
that figures in the old copper-plate engravings. The 
Emperor welcomed Smith with a kind countenance, 
caused him to sit beside him, and with pretty discourse 
they renewed their old acquaintance. Smith presented 
him with a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and 
a hat. The Queen of Apamatuc, a comely young 
savage, brought him water, a turkey-cock, and bread 
to eat. Powhatan professed great content with Smith, 
but desired to see his father, Capt. Newport. He 
inquired also with a merry countenance after the piece 
of ordnance that Smith had promised to send him, and 
Smith, with equal jocularity, replied that he had 
offered the men four demi-culverins, which they found 
too heavy to carry. This night they quartered with 



i6o8] SMITH'S IVAY WITH THE INDIANS. I3I 

Powhatan, and were liberally feasted, and entertained 
with singing, dancing, and orations. 

The next day Capt. Newport came ashore. The 
two monarchs exchanged presents. Newport gave 
Powhatan a white boy thirteen years old, named 
Thomas Savage. This boy remained with the Indians 
and served the colony many years as an interpreter. 
Powhatan gave Newport in return a bag of beans and 
an Indian named Namontack for his servant. Three 
or four days they remained, feasting, dancing, and 
trading with the Indians. 

In trade the wily savage was more than a match for 
Newport. He affected great dignity ; it was unworthy 
such great werowances to dicker ; it was not agreeable 
to his greatness in a peddling manner to trade for 
trifles ; let the great Newport lay down his commodi- 
ties all together, and Powhatan would take what he 
wished, and recompense him with a proper return. 
Smith, who knew the Indians and their ostentation, 
told Newport that the intention was to cheat him, but 
his interference was resented. The result justified 
Smith's suspicion. Newport received but four bushels 
of corn when he should have had twenty hogsheads. 
Smith then tried his hand at a trade. With a few blue 
beads, which he represented as of a rare substance, the 
color of the skies, and worn by the greatest kings in 
the world, he so inflamed the desire of Powhatan that 
he was half mad to possess such strange jewels, and 
gave for them 200 to 300 bushels of corn, "and yet," 
says Smith, "parted good friends." 

At this time Powhatan, knowing that they desired 
to invade or explore Monacan, the country above the 
Falls, proposed an expedition, with men and boats, 
and " this faire tale had almost made Capt. Newport 
undertake by this means to discover the South Sea," 



132 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

a project which the adventurers had always in mind. 
On this expedition they sojourned also with the King 
of Pamaunke. 

Capt. Newport returned to England on the loth of 
April. Mr. Scrivener and Capt. Smith were now in 
fact the sustainers of the colony. They made short 
expeditions of exploration. Powhatan and other chiefs 
still professed friendship and sent presents, but the 
Indians grew more and more offensive, lurking about 
and stealing all they could lay hands on. Several of 
them were caught and confined in the fort, and, 
guarded, were conducted to the morning and evening 
prayers. By threats and slight torture, the captives 
were made to confess the hostile intentions of Pow- 
hatan and the other chiefs, which was to steal their 
weapons and then overpower the colony. Rigorous 
measures were needed to keep the Indians in check, 
but the command from England not to offend the 
savages was so strict that Smith dared not chastise 
them as they deserved. The history of the colony all 
this spring of 1608 is one of labor and discontent, of 
constant annoyance from the Indians, and expectations 
of attacks. On the 20th of April, while they were 
hewing trees and setting corn, an alarm was given 
which sent them all to their arms. Fright was turned 
into joy by the sight of the Phoenix^ with Capt. Nelson 
and his company, who had been for three months 
detained in the West Indies, and given up for lost. 

Being thus re-enforced. Smith and Scrivener desired 
to explore the country above the Falls, and got ready 
an expedition. But this, Martin, who was only intent 
upon loading the return ship with "his phantastical 
gold," opposed, and Nelson did not think he had 
authority to allow it, unless they would bind themselves 
to pay the hire of the ships. The project was there- 



i6o8] SMITH'S WAY WITH THE INDIANS. 1 33 

fore abandoned. The Indians continued their depre- 
dations. Messages daily passed between the fort and 
the Indians, and treachery was always expected. 
About this time the boy Thomas Savage was re- 
turned, with his chest and clothing. 

The colony had now several of the Indians detained 
in the fort. At this point in the " True Relation" 
occurs the first mention of Pocahontas. Smith says: 
" Powhatan, understanding we detained certain Salv- 
ages, sent his daughter, a child of tenne years old, 
which not only for feature, countenance, and proportion 
much exceeded any of his people, but for wit and 
spirit, the only nonpareil of his country." She was 
accompanied by his trusty messenger Rawhunt, a 
crafty and deformed savage, who assured Smith how 
much Powhatan loved and respected him, and, that he 
should not doubt his kindness, had sent his child, 
whom he most esteemed, to see him, and a deer, and 
bread besides for a present ; " desiring us that the boy 
might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his 
little daughter he had taught this lesson also: not 
taking notice at all of the Indians that had been 
prisoners three days, till that morning that she saw 
their fathers and friends come quietly and in good 
terms to entreat their liberty." 

Opechancanough (the King of " Pamauk") also 
sent asking the release of two that were his friends; 
and others, apparently with confidence in the whites, 
came begging for the release of the prisoners. " In 
the afternoon they being gone, we guarded them 
[the prisoners] as before to the church, and after 
prayer gave them to Pocahuntas, the King's 
daughter, in regard to her father's kindness in 
sending her: after having well fed them, as all the 
time of their imprisonment, we gave them their 



134 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

bows, arrows, or what else they had, and with much 
content sent 'them packing; Pocahuntas, also, we 
requited with such trifles as contented her, to tell 
that we had used the Paspaheyans very kindly in 
so releasing them." 

This account would show that Pocahontas was a 
child of uncommon dignity and self-control for her 
age. In his letter to Queen Anne, written in 1616, 
he speaks of her as aged twelve or thirteen at the 
time of his captivity, several months before this visit 
to the fort. 

The colonists still had reason to fear ambuscades 
from the savages lurking about in the woods. One 
day a Paspahean came with a glittering mineral 
stone, and said he could show them great abun- 
dance of it. Smith went to look for this mine, but 
was led about hither and thither in the woods till 
he lost his patience and was convinced that the 
Indian was fooling him, when he gave him twenty 
lashes with a rope, handed him his bows and arrows, 
told him to shoot if he dared, and let him go. Smith 
had a prompt way with the Indians. He always 
traded ** squarely" with them, kept his promises, 
and never hesitated to attack or punish them when 
they deserved it. They feared and respected him. 

The colony was now in fair condition, in good 
health, and contented; and it was believed, though 
the belief was not well founded, that they would 
have lasting peace with the Indians. Capt. Nelson's 
ship, the Phoenix, was freighted with cedar wood, 
and was dispatched for England June 8, 1608. 
Capt. Martin, "always sickly and unserviceable, 
and desirous to enjoy the credit of his supposed 
art of finding the gold mine," took passage. Capt. 
Nelson probably carried Smith's "True Relation." 



CHAPTER X. 

DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 

ON the same day that Nelson sailed for England, 
Smith set out to explore the Chesapeake, accom- 
panying the Phcenix as far as Cape Henry, in a barge 
of about three tons. With him went Dr. Walter Rus- 
sell, six gentlemen, and seven soldiers. The narrative 
of the voyage is signed by Dr. Russell, Thomas Mom- 
ford, gentleman, and Anas Todkill, soldier. Master 
Scrivener remained at the fort, where his presence was 
needed to keep in check the prodigal waste of the 
stores upon his parasites by President Ratcliffe. 

The expedition crossed the bay at " Smith's Isles," 
named after the Captain, touched at Cape Charles, and 
coasted along the eastern shore. Two stout savages 
hailed them from Cape Charles, and directed them to 
Accomack, whose king proved to be the most comely 
and civil savage they had yet encountered. 

He told them of a strange accident that had hap- 
pened. The parents of two children who had died 
were moved by some phantasy to revisit their dead 
carcasses, " whose benumbed bodies reflected to the 
eyes of the beholders such delightful countenances as 
though they had regained their vital spirits." This 
miracle drew a great part of the King's people to 
behold them, nearly all of whom died shortly after- 
ward. These people spoke the language of Powhatan. 
Smith explored the bays, isles, and islets, searching 
for harbors and places of habitation. He was a born 



136 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

explorer and geographer, as his remarkable map of 
Virginia sufficiently testifies. The company was much 
tossed about in the rough waves of the bay, and had 
great difficulty in procuring drinking-water. They en- 
tered the Wighcocomoco, on the east side, where the 
natives first threatened and then received them with 
songs, dancing, and mirth. A point on the mainland 
where they found a pond of fresh water they named 
" Poynt Ployer in honor of the most honorable house 
of Monsay, in Britaine, that in an extreme extremitie 
once relieved our Captain." This reference to the 
Earl of Ployer, who was kind to Smith in his youth, is 
only an instance of the care with which he edited these 
narratives of his own exploits, which were nominally 
written by his companions. 

The explorers were nowassailedwith violent storms, 
and at last took refuge for two days on some unin- 
habited islands, which by reason of the ill weather and 
the hurly-burly of thunder, lightning, wind and rain, 
they called " Limbo." Repairing their torn sails with 
their shirts, they sailed for the mainland on the east, 
and ran into a river called Cuskarawook (perhaps the 
present Annomessie), where the inhabitants received 
them with showers of arrows, ascending the trees and 
shooting at them. The next day a crowd came 
dancing to the shore, making friendly signs, but 
Smith, suspecting villainy, discharged his muskets into 
them. Landing toward evening, the explorers found 
many baskets and much blood, but no savages. The 
following day, savages to the number, the account 
wildly says, of two or three thousand, came to visit 
them, and were very friendly. These tribes Smith 
calls the Sarapinagh, Nause, Arseek, and Nantaquak, 
and says they are the best merchants of that coast. 
They told him of a great nation, called the Massa- 



i6o8] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 1 37 

womeks, of whom he set out in search, passing by the 
Limbo, and coasting the west side of Chesapeake Bay. 
The people on the east side he describes as of small 
stature. 

They anchored at night at a place called Richard's 
Cliffs, north of the Pawtuxet, and from thence went on 
till they reached the first river navigable for ships, which 
they named the Bolus, and which by its position on 
Smith's map may be the Severn or the Patapsco. 

The men now, having been kept at the oars ten days, 
tossed about by storms, and with nothing to eat but 
bread rotten from the wet, supposed that the Captain 
would turn about and go home. But he reminded 
them how the company of Ralph Lane, in like circum- 
stances, importuned him to proceed with the discovery 
of Moratico, alleging that they had yet a dog that 
boiled with sassafras leaves would richly feed them. 
He could not think of returning yet, for they were 
scarce able to say where they had been, nor had yet 
heard of what they were sent to seek. He exhorted 
them to abandon their childish fear of being lost in 
these unknown, large waters, but he assured them that 
return he would not, till he had seen the Massawomeks 
and found the Patowomek. 

On the i6th of June they discovered the River 
Patowomek (Potomac), seven miles broad at the 
mouth, up which they sailed thirty miles before they 
encountered any inhabitants. Four savages at length 
appeared and conducted them up a creek where were 
three or four thousand in ambush, " so strangely 
painted, grimed and disguised, shouting, yelling, and 
crying as so many spirits from hell could not have 
showed more terrible." But the discharge of the fire- 
arms and the echo in the forest so appeased their fury 
that they threw down their bows, exchanged hostages, 



138 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^Et. 29 

and kindly used the strangers. The Indians told him 
that Powhatan had commanded them to betray them, 
and the serious charge is added that Powhatan " so 
directed from the discontents at Jamestown because 
our Captain did cause them to stay in their country 
against their wills." This reveals the suspicion and 
thoroughly bad feeling existing among the colonists. 

The expedition went up the river to a village called 
Patowomek, and thence rowed up a little River Qui- 
yough (Acquia Creek ?) in search of a mountain of 
antimony, which they found. The savages put this an- 
timony up in little bags and sold it all over the country to 
paint their bodies and faces, which made them look like 
Blackamoors dusted over with silver. Some bags of 
this they carried away, and also collected a good 
amount of furs of otters, bears, martens, and minks. Fish 
were abundant, " lying so thick with their heads above 
water, as for want of nets (our barge driving among 
them) we attempted to catch them with a frying-pan ; 
but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with , 
neither better fish, more plenty, nor more variety for 
small fish, had any of us ever seen in any place, so 
swimming in the water, but they are not to be caught 
with frying-pans." 

In all his encounters and quarrels with the treacher- 
ous savages Smith lost not a man ; it was his habit 
when he encountered a body of them to demand their 
bows, arrows, swords, and furs, and a child or two as 
hostages. 

Having finished his discovery he returned. Pass- 
ing the mouth of the Rappahannock, by some called 
the Tappahannock, where- in shoal water were many 
fish lurking in the weeds. Smith had his first expe- 
rience of the Stingray. It chanced that the Captain 
took one of these fish from his sword, " not know- 



i6o8] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 1 39 

ing her condition, being much the fashion of a Thorn- 
beck, but a long tayle like a riding rodde whereon 
the middest is a most poysonne sting of two or three 
inches long, bearded like a saw on each side, which 
she struck into the wrist of his arme neare an inch and 
a half." The arm and shoulder swelled so much, and 
the torment was so great, that "we all with much sor- 
row concluded his funerale, and prepared his grave in 
an island by, as himself directed." But it " pleased God 
by a precious oyle Dr. Russell applied to it that his 
tormenting paine was so assuged that he ate of that 
fish to his supper." 

Setting sail for Jamestown, and arriving at Kecough- 
tan, the sight of the furs and other plunder, and of 
Captain Smith wounded, led the Indians to think that 
he had been at war with the Massawomeks ; which 
opinion Smith encouraged. They reached Jamestown 
July 21, in fine spirits, to find thecolony in a mutinous 
condition, the last arrivals all sick, and the others on 
the point of revenging themselves on the silly Presi- 
dent, who had brought them all to misery by his 
riotous consumption of the stores, and by forcing them 
to work on an unnecessary pleasure-house for himself 
in the woods. They were somewhat appeased by the 
good news of the discovery, and in the belief that their 
bay stretched into the South Sea; and submitted on 
condition that Ratcliffe should be deposed and Cap- 
tain Smith take upon himself the government, " as by 
course it did belong." He consented, but substituted 
Mr. Scrivener, his dear friend, in the presidency, dis- 
tributed the provisions, appointed honest men to assist 
Mr. Scrivener, and set out on the 24th, with twelve 
men, to finish his discovery. 

He passed by the Patowomek River and hasted to 
the River Bolus, which he had before visited. On the 



I40 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

bay they fell in with seven or eight canoes full of the re- 
nowned Massawomeks, with whom they had a fight, but 
at length these savages became friendly and gave them 
bows, arrows, and skins. They were at war with the 
Tockwoghes. Proceeding up the River Tockwogh, the 
latter Indians received them with friendship, because 
they had the weapons which they supposed had been 
captured in a fight with the Massawomeks. These 
Indians had hatchets, knives, pieces of iron and brass, 
they reported came from the Susquesahanocks, a 
mighty people, the enemies of the Massawomeks, 
living at the head of the bay. As Smith in his barge 
could not ascend to them, he sent an interpreter to re- 
quest a visit from them. In three or four days sixty 
of these giant-like people came down with presents of 
venison, tobacco-pipes three feet in length, baskets, 
targets, and bows and arrows. Some further notice is 
necessary of this first appearance of the Susquehan- 
nocks, who became afterwards so well known, by 
reason of their great stature and their friendliness. 
Portraits of these noble savages appeared in De Bry's 
voyages, which were used in Smith's map, and also by 
Strachey. These beautiful copper-plate engravings 
spread through Europe most exaggerated ideas of 
the American savages. 

"Our order," says Smith, "was daily to have 
prayers, with a psalm, at which solemnity the poor 
savages wondered." When it was over the Susquesa- 
hanocks, in a fervent manner, held up their hands to 
the sun, and then embracing the Captain, adored him 
in like manner. With a furious manner and " a hellish 
voyce" they began an oration of their loves, covered 
him with their painted bear-skins, hung a chain of white 
beads about his neck, and hailed his creation as their 
governor and protector, promising aid and victuals \i 



i6o8] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE. I4I 

he would stay and help them fight the Massawomeks. 
Much they told him of the Atquanachuks, who live on 
the Ocean Sea, the Massawomeks and other people 
living on a great water beyond the mountain (v/hich 
Smith understood to be some great lake or the river 
of Canada), and that they received their hatchets and 
other commodities from the French. They mourned 
greatly at Smith's departure. Of Powhatan they knew 
nothing but the name. 

Strachey, who probably enlarges from Smith his ac- 
count of the same people, whom he calls Sasquesa- 
hanougs, says they were well-proportioned giants, but 
of an honest and simple disposition. Their language 
well beseemed their proportions, " sounding from them 
as it were a great voice in a vault or cave, as an ecco." 
The picture of one of these chiefs is given in De Bry 
and described by Strachey, " the calf of whose leg 
was three quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of 
his limbs so answerable to the same proportions that 
he seemed the goodliest man they ever saw." 

It would not entertain the reader to follow Smith 
in all the small adventures of the exploration, during 
which he says he went about 3000 miles (three thou- 
sand miles in three or four weeks in a row-boat is 
nothing in Smith's memory), "with such watery diet in 
these great waters and barbarous countries." Much 
hardship he endured, alternately skirmishing and feast- 
ing with the Indians ; many were the tribes he struck 
an alliance with, and many valuable details he added 
to the geographical knowledge of the region. In all 
this exploration Smith showed himself skillful as he 
v/as vigorous and adventurous. 

He returned to James River September 7th. Many 
had died, some were sick, Ratcliffe, the late President, 
was a prisoner for mutiny, Master Scrivener had dili- 



142 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

gently gathered the harvest, but much of the provi- 
sions had been spoiled by rain. Thus the summer was 
consumed, and nothing had been accomplished except 
Smith's discovery. 



CHAPTER XI. 

smith's presidency and prowess. 

ON the tenth of September, by the election of the 
Council and the request of the company, Capt. 
Smith received the letters patent, and became Presi- 
dent. He stopped the building of Ratcliffe's " palace," 
repaired the church and the store-house, got ready the 
buildings for the supply expected from England, re- 
duced the fort to a " five square form," set and trained 
the watch and exercised the company every Saturday 
on a plain called Smithfield, to the amazement of the 
on-looking Indians. 

Capt. Newport arrived with a new supply of seventy 
persons. Among them were Capt. Francis West, 
brother to Lord Delaware, Capt. Peter Winne, and 
Capt. Peter Waldo, appointed on the Council, eight 
Dutchmen and Poles, and Mistress Forest and Anne 
Burrows her maid, the first white women in the colony. 

Smith did not relish the arrival of Capt. Newport 
nor the instructions under which he returned. He 
came back commanded to discover the country of 
Monacan (above the Falls) and to perform the cere- 
mony of coronation on the Emperor Powhatan. 

How Newport got this private commission when he 
had returned to England without a lump of gold, nor 
any certainty of the South Sea, or one of the lost com- 
pany sent out by Raleigh ; and why he brought a " fine 
peeced barge" which must be carried over unknown 
mountains before it reached the South Sea, he could 



144 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

not understand. " As for the coronation of Powhatan 
and his presents of basin and ewer, bed, bedding, 
clothes, and such costly novelties, they had been much 
better well spared than so ill spent, for we had his 
favor and better for a plain piece of copper, till this 
stately kind of soliciting made him so much overvalue 
himself that he respected us as much as nothing at all." 
Smith evidently understood the situation much better 
than the promoters in England; and we can quite ex- 
cuse him in his rage over the foolishness and greed of 
most of his companions. There was little nonsense 
about Smith in action, though he need not turn his 
hand on any man of that age as a boaster. 

To send out Poles and Dutchmen to make pitch, 
tar, and glass would have been well enough if the col- 
ony had been firmly established and supplied with 
necessaries ; and they might have sent two hundred 
colonists instead of seventy, if they had ordered them 
to go to work collecting provisions of the Indians for 
the winter, instead of attempting this strange discov- 
ery of the South Sea, and wasting their time on a more 
strange coronation. " Now was there no way," asks 
Smith, " to make us miserable," but by direction from 
England to perform this discovery and coronation, 
" to take that time, spend what victuals we had, tire 
and starve our men, having no means to carry victuals, 
ammunition, the hurt or the sick, but on their own 
backs .>" 

Smith seems to have protested against all this non- 
sense, but though he was governor, the Council over- 
ruled him. Capt. Newport decided to take one 
hundred and twenty men, fearing to go with a less 
number, and journey to Werowocomoco to crown Pow- 
hatan. In order to save time Smith offered to take a 
message to Powhatan, and induce him to come to 



i6o8j SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 145 

Jamestown and receive the honor and the presents. 
Accompanied by only four men he crossed by land to 
Werowocomoco, passed the Pamaunkee(York) River in 
a canoe, and sent for Powhatan, who was thirty miles 
off. Meantime Pocahontas, who by his own account 
was a mere child, and her women entertained Smith in 
the following manner : 

" In a fayre plaine they made a fire, before which, sitting 
upon a mat, suddenly amongst the woods was heard such a 
hydeous noise and shreeking that the English betook 
themselves to their armes, and seized upon two or three 
old men, by them supposing Powhatan with all his power 
was come to surprise them. But presently Pocahontas 
came, willing him to kill her if any hurt were intended, 
and the beholders, which were men, women and children, 
satisfied the Captaine that there was no such matter. 
Then presently they were presented with this anticke : 
Thirty young women came naked out of the woods, only 
covered behind and before with a few greene leaves, their 
bodies all painted, some of one color, some of another, but 
all differing; their leader had a fayre payre of Bucks 
homes on her head, and an Otters skinne at her girdle, and 
another at her arme, a quiver of arrows at her backe, a 
bow and arrows in her hand ; the next had in her hand a 
sword, another a club, another a pot-sticke : all horned 
alike ; the rest every one with their several devises. These 
fiends with most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from 
among the trees, cast themselves in a ring about the fire, 
singing and dancing with most excellent ill-varietie, oft 
falling into their infernal passions, and solemnly again to 
sing and dance ; having spent nearly an hour in this Mas- 
carado, as they entered, in like manner they departed. 

" Having reaccommodated themselves, they solemnly 
invited him to their lodgings, where he was no sooner 
within the house, but all these Nymphs more tormented 
him than ever, with crowding, pressing, and hanging about 
him, most tediously crying, " Love 3-ou not me? Love you 



146 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

not me ?" This salutation ended, the feast was set, con- 
sisting of all the Salvage dainties they could devise : some 
attending, others singing and dancing about them : which 
mirth being ended with fire brands, instead of torches they 
conducted him to his lodging." 

The next day Powhatan arrived. Smith delivered 
up the Indian Namontuck, who had just returned from 
a voyage to England — whither it was suspected the 
Emperor wished him to go to spy out the weakness of 
the English tribe — and repeated Father Newport's re- 
quest that Powhatan would come to Jamestown to re- 
ceive the presents and join in an expedition against 
his enemies, the Monacans. 

Powhatan's reply was worthy of his imperial high- 
ness, and has been copied ever since in the speeches 
of the lords of the soil to the pale faces: "If your 
king has sent me present, I also am a king, and this 
is my land : eight days I will stay to receive them. 
Your father is to come to me, not I to him, nor yet to 
your fort, neither will I bite at such a bait ; as for the 
Monacans, I can revenge my own injuries." 

This was the lofty potentate whom Smith, by his 
way of management, could have tickled out of his 
senses with a glass bead, and who would infinitely 
have preferred a big shining copper kettle to the mis- 
placed honor intended to be thrust upon him, but the 
offer of which puffed him up beyond the reach of 
negotiation. Smith returned with his message. New- 
port dispatched the presents round by water a hun- 
dred miles, and the Captains, with fifty soldiers, went 
over land to Werowocomoco, where occurred the 
ridiculous ceremony of the coronation, which Smith 
describes with much humor. "The next day," he 
says, " was appointed for the coronation. Then the 
presents were brought him, his bason and ewer, bed 



i6o8] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. I47 

and furniture set up, his scarlet cloke and apparel, 
with much adoe put on him, being persuaded by 
Namontuck they would not hurt him. But a foule 
trouble there was to make him kneel to receive his 
Crown; he not knowing the majesty nor wearing of a 
Crown, nor bending of the knee, endured so many 
persuasions, examples and instructions as tyred them 
all. At last by bearing hard on his shoulders, he a 
little stooped, and three having the crown in their 
hands put it on his head, when by the warning of a 
pistoll the boats were prepared with such a volley of 
shot that the king start up in a horrible feare, till he 
saw all was well. Then remembering himself to con- 
gratulate their kindness he gave his old shoes and his 
mantell to Capt. Newport" ! 

The Monacan expedition the King discouraged, and 
refused to furnish for it either guides or men. Besides 
his old shoes, the crowned monarch charitably gave 
Newport a little heap of corn, only seven or eight 
bushels, and with this little result the absurd expedi- 
tion returned to Jamestown. 

Shortly after Capt. Newport with a chosen company 
of one hundred and twenty men (leaving eighty with 
President Smith in the fort) and accompanied by Capt. 
Waldo, Lieut. Percy, Capt. Winne, Mr. West, and Mr. 
Scrivener, who was eager for adventure, set off for the 
discovery of Monacan. The expedition, as Smith 
predicted, was fruitless : the Indians deceived them 
and refused to trade, and the company got back to 
Jamestown, half of them sick, all grumbling, and worn 
out with toil, famine and discontent. 

Smith at once set the whole colony to work, some 
to make glass, tar, pitch, and soap-ashes, and others 
he conducted five miles down the river to learn to fell 
trees and make clapboards. In this company were a 



148 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 29 

couple of gallants, lately come over, Gabriel Beadle 
and John Russell, proper gentlemen, but unused to 
hardships, whom Smith has immortalized by his novel 
cure of their profanity. They took gayly to the rough 
life, and entered into the attack on the forest so pleas- 
antly that in a week they were masters of chopping : 
" making it their delight to hear the trees thunder as 
they fell, but the axes so often blistered their tender " 
lingers that many times every third blow had a loud 
othe to drown the echo; for remedie of which sinne 
the President devised how to have every man's othes 
numbered, and at night for every othe to have a Canne 
of water powred downe his sleeve, with which every 
offender was so washed (himself and all), that a man 
would scarce hear an othe in a weake." In the clear- 
ing of our country since, this excellent plan has fallen 
into desuetude, for want of any pious Capt. Smith 
in the logging camps. 

These gentlemen, says Smith, did not spend their 
time in wood-logging like hirelings, but entered into it 
with such spirit that thirty of them would accomplish 
more than a hundred of the sort that had to be driven 
to work ; yet, he sagaciously adds, " twenty good work- 
men had been better than them all." 

Returning to the fort. Smith, as usual, found the 
time consumed and no provisions got, and Newport's 
ship lying idle at a great charge. With Percy he set 
out on an expedition for corn to the Chickahominy, 
which the insolent Indians, knowing their want, would 
not supply. Perceiving that it was Powhatan's policy 
to starve them (as if it was the business of the Indians 
to support all the European vagabonds and adventur- 
ers who came to dispossess them of their country), 
Smith gave out that he came not so much for corn as 
to revenge his imprisonment and the death of his men 



i6o8] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 1 49 

murdered by the Indians, and proceeded to make war. 
This high-handed treatment made the savages sue for 
peace, and furnish, although they complained of want 
themselves, owing to a bad harvest, a hundred bushels 
of corn. 

This supply contented the company, who feared 
nothing so much as starving, and yet, says Smith, so 
envied him that they would rather hazard starving 
than have him get reputation by his vigorous conduct. 
There is no contemporary account of that period ex- 
cept this which Smith indited. He says that Newport 
and Ratcliffe conspired not only to depose him but to 
keep him out of the fort ; since being President they 
could not control his movements, but that their horns 
were much too short to effect it. 

At this time in the " old Taverne," as Smith calls the 
fort, everybody who had money or goods made all he 
could by trade; soldiers, sailors and savages were 
agreed to barter, and there was more care to maintain 
their damnable and private trade than to provide the 
things necessary for the colony. In a few weeks the 
whites had bartered away nearly all the axes, chisels, 
hoes and picks, and what powder, shot and pike-heads 
they could steal, in exchange for furs, baskets, young 
beasts and such like commodities. Though the sup- 
ply of furs was scanty in Virginia, one master con- 
fessed he had got in one voyage by this private trade 
what he sold in England for thirty pounds. " These 
are the Saint-seeming Worthies of Virginia," indig- 
nantly exclaims the President, " that have, notwith- 
standing all this, meate, drinke and wages." But 
now they began to get weary of the country, their 
trade being prevented. " The loss, scorn and misery 
was the poor officers, gentlemen and careless governors, 
who were bought and sold." The adventurers were 



ISO CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

cheated, and all their actions overthrown by false 
information and unwise directions. 

Master Scrivener was sent with the barges and pin- 
nace to Werowocomoco, where by the aid of Namon- 
tuck he procured a little corn, though the savages 
were more ready to fight than to trade. At length 
Newport's ship was loaded with clapboards, pitch, tar, 
glass, frankincense (.?) and soap-ashes, and dispatched 
to England. About two hundred men were left in the 
colony. With Newport Smith sent his famous letter 
to the Treasurer and Council in England. It is so 
good a specimen of Smith's ability with the pen, re- 
veals so well his sagacity and knowledge of what a 
colony needed, and exposes so clearly the ill-manage- 
ment of the London promoters, and the condition of 
the colony, that we copy it entire. It appears by this 
letter that Smith's " Map of Virginia," and his descrip- 
tion of the country and its people, which were not 
published till 161 2, were sent by this opportunity. 
Capt. Newport sailed for England late in the autumn 
of 1608. The letter reads: 

Right Honorable, etc. : 

I received your letter wherein you write that our minds 
are so set upon faction, and idle conceits in dividing the 
country without your consents, and that we feed you 
but with ifs and ands, hopes and some few proofes; as if 
we would keepe the mystery of the businesse to ourselves : 
and that we must expressly follow your instructions sent 
by Captain Newport : the charge of whose voyage amounts 
to neare two thousand pounds, the which if we cannot 
defray by the ships returne we are likely to remain as 
banished men. To these particulars I humbly intreat 
your pardons if I offend you with my rude answer. 

For our factions, unless you would have me run away 
and leave the country, I cannot prevent them ; because I 
do make many stay that would else fly away whither. For 



i6o8] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 151 

the Idle letter sent to my Lord of Salisbury, by the Presi- 
dent and his confederates, for dividing the country, &c., 
what it was I know not, for you saw no hand of mine to 
it; nor ever dream't I of any such matter. That we feed 
you with hopes, &c. Though I be no scholar, I am past 
a school-boy; and I desire but to know what either you 
and these here doe know, but that I have learned to tell 
you by the continuall hazard of my life. I have not con- 
cealed from you anything I know; but I feare some cause 
you to believe much more than is true. 

Expressly to follow your directions by Captain New- 
port, though they be performed, I was directly against it ; 
but according to our commission, I was content to be 
overouled by the major part of the Councill, I feare to the 
hazard of us all ; which now is generally confessed when 
it is too late. Onely Captaine Winne and Captaine Waldo 
I have sworne of the Councill, and crowned Powhattan 
according to your instructions. 

For the charge of the voyage of two or three thousand 
pounds we have not received the value of one hundred 
pounds, and for the quartered boat to be borne by the 
souldiers over the falls. Newport had 120 of the best men 
he could chuse. If he had burnt her to ashes, one might 
have carried her in a bag, but as she is, five hundred can- 
not to a navigable place above the falls. And for him at 
that time to find in the South Sea a mine of gold ; or any of 
them sent by Sir Walter Raleigh ; at our consultation I told 
them was as likely as the rest. But during this great dis- 
covery of thirtie miles (which might as well have been done 
by one man, and much more, for the value of a pound of 
copper at a seasonable tyme), they had the pinnace and 
all the boats with them but one that remained with me to 
serve the fort. In their absence I followed the new begun 
works of Pitch and Tarre, Glasse, Sope-ashes, Clapboord, 
whereof some small quantities we have sent you. But if 
you rightly consider what an infinite toyle it is in Russia 
and Swethland, where the woods are proper for naught 
els, and though there be the helpe both of man and beast 
in those ancient commonwealths, which many an hundred 



152 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 29 

years have used it, yet thousands of those poor people can 
scarce get necessaries to live, but from hand to mouth, 
and though your factors there can buy as much in a week 
as will fraught you a ship, or as much as you please, you 
must not expect from us any such matter, which are but 
as many of ignorant, miserable soules, that are scarce able 
to get wherewith to live, and defend ourselves against the 
inconstant Salvages : finding but here and there a tree fit 
for the purpose, and want all things else the Russians 
have. For the Coronation of Powhattan, by whose advice 
you sent him such presents, I know not; but this give me 
leave to tell you, I feare they will be the confusion of us 
all ere we heare from you again. At your ships arrivall, 
the Salvages harvest was newly gathered, and we going to 
buy it, our owne not being halve sufficient for so great a 
number. As for the two ships loading of corne Newport 
promised to provide us from Powhattan, he brought us but 
fourteen bushels; and from the Monacans nothing, but 
the most of the men sicke and neare famished. From 
your ship we had not provision in victuals worth twenty 
pound, and we are more than two hundred to live upon 
this the one halfe sicke, the other little better. For the 
saylers (I confesse), they daily make good cheare, but our 
dyet is a little meale and water, and not sufficient of that. 
Though there be fish in the Sea, fowles in the ayre, and 
beasts in the woods, their bounds are so large, they so 
wilde, and we so weake and ignorant, we cannot much 
trouble them. Captaine Newport we much suspect to be 
the Author of these inventions. Now that you should 
know, I have made you as great a discovery as he, for 
lesse charge than he spendeth you every meale ; I had sent 
you this mappe of the Countries and Nations that inhabit 
them, as you may see at large. Also two barrels of stones, 
and such as I take to be good. Iron ore at the least ; so 
divided, as by their notes you may see in what places I 
found them. The souldiers say many of your officers 
maintaine their families out of that you sent us, and that 
Newport hath an hundred pounds a year for carrying 
newes. For every master you have yet sent can find the 



i6o8] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 1 53 

way as well as he, so that an hundred pounds might be 
spared, which is more than we have all, that helps to pay 
him wages. Cap. Ratliffe is now called Sicklemore, a 
poore counterfeited Imposture. I have sent you him 
home least the Company should cut his throat. What he 
is, now every one can tell you : if he and Archer returne 
againe, they are sufficient to keep us always in factions. 
When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty 
carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, 
masons, and diggers up of trees roots, well provided, then a 
thousand of such as we have ; for except wee be able both 
to lodge them, and feed them, the most will consume with 
want of necessaries before they can be made good for any- 
thing. Thus if you please to consider this account, and 
the unnecessary wages to Captaine Newport, or his ships 
so long lingering and staying here (for notwithstanding 
his boasting to leave us victuals for 12 months, though 
we had 89 by this discovery lame and sicke, and but a 
pinte of corne a day for a man, we were constrained to 
give him three hogsheads of that to victuall him home- 
ward), or yet to send into Germany or Poleland for glasse- 
men and the rest, till we be able to sustaine ourselves, 
and releeve them when they come. It were better to give 
five hundred pound a ton for those grosse Commodities in 
Denmarke, then send for them hither, till more necessary 
things be provided. For in over-toyling our weake and 
unskilfull bodies, to satisfy this desire of present profit, 
we can scarce ever recover ourselves from one supply to 
another. And I humbly intreat you hereafter, let us have 
what we should receive, and not stand to the Saylers 
courtesie to leave us what they please, els you may charge 
us what you will, but we not you with anything. These 
are the causes that have kept us in Virginia from laying 
such a foundation that ere this might have given much 
better content and satisfaction, but as yet you must not 
look for any profitable returning. So I humbly rest. 

After the departure of Newport, Smith, with his 
accustomed resolution, set to work to gather supplies 



154 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [".Et. 29-30 

for the winter. Corn had to be extorted from the 
Indians by force. In one expedition to Nansemond, 
when the Indians refused to trade, Smith fired upon 
them, and then landed and burned one of their houses ; 
whereupon they submitted and loaded his three boats 
with corn. The ground was covered with ice and 
snow, and the nights were bitterly cold. The device 
for sleeping warm in the open air was to sweep the 
snow away from the ground and build a fire; the fire 
was then raked off from the heated earth and a mat 
spread, upon which the whites lay warm, sheltered by 
a mat hung up on the windward side, until the ground 
got cold, when they builded a fire on another place. 
Many a cold winter night did the explorers endure this 
hardship, yet grew fat and lusty under it. 

About this time was solemnized the marriage of 
John Laydon and Anne Burrows, the first in Virginia. 
Anne was the maid of Mistress Forrest, who had just 
come out to grow up with the country, and John was 
a laborer who came with the first colony in 1607. 
This was actually the " First Family of Virginia," 
about which so much has been eloquently said. 

Provisions were still wanting. Mr. Scrivener and 
Mr. Percy returned from an expedition with nothing. 
Smith proposed to surprise Powhatan, and seize his 
store of corn, but he says he was hindered in this pro- 
ject by Capt. Winne and Mr. Scrivener (who had 
heretofore been considered one of Smith's friends), 
whom he now suspected of plotting his ruin in Eng- 
land. 

Powhatan on his part sent word to Smith to visit 
him, to send him men to build a house, give him a 
grindstone, fifty swords, some big guns, a cock and a 
hen, much copper and beads, in return for which he 
would load his ship with corn. Without any confi- 



i6o8-g] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 155 

dence in the crafty savage, Smith humored him by- 
sending several workmen, including four Dutchmen, 
to build him a house. Meantime with two barges 
and the pinnace and forty-six men, including Lieut. 
Percy, Capt. Wirt, and Capt. William Phittiplace, on 
the 29th of December he set out on a journey to the 
Pamaunky, or York, River. 

The first night was spent at " Warraskogack," the 
king of which warned Smith that while Powhatan 
would receive him kindly he was only seeking an op- 
portunity to cut their throats and seize their arms. 
Christmas was kept with extreme winds, rain, frost and 
snow among the savages at Kecoughton, where before 
roaring fires they made merry with plenty of oysters, 
fish, flesh, wild fowls and good bread. The Presi- 
dent and two others went gunning for birds, and brought 
down one hundred and forty-eight fowls with three 
shots. 

Ascending the river, on the 12th of January they 
reached Werowocomoco. The river was frozen half 
a mile from the shore, and when the barge could not 
come to land by reason of the ice and muddy shal- 
lows, they effected a landing by wading. Powhatan 
at their request sent them venison, turkeys and bread ; 
the next day he feasted them, and then inquired when 
they were going, ignoring his invitation to them to 
come. Hereupon followed a long game of fence be- 
tween Powhatan and Capt. Smith, each trying to 
overreach the other, and each indulging profusely in 
lies and pledges. Each professed the utmost love for 
the other. 

Smith upbraided him with neglect of his promise to 
supply them with corn, and told him, in reply to his 
demand for weapons, that he had no arms to spare. 
Powhatan asked him, if he came on a peaceful errand, 



156 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 29 

to lay aside his weapons, for he had heard that the 
English came not so much for trade as to invade his 
people and possess his country, and the people did not 
dare to bring in their corn while the English were 
around. 

Powhatan seemed indifferent about the building. 
The Dutchmen who had come to build Powhatan a 
house liked the Indian plenty better than the risk of 
starvation with the colony, revealed to Powhatan the 
poverty of the whites, and plotted to betray them, of 
which plot Smith was not certain till six months 
later. Powhatan discoursed eloquently on the advan- 
tage of peace over war : " I have seen the death of 
all my people thrice," he said, "and not any one 
living of those three generations but myself; I know 
the difference of peace and war better than any in my 
country. But I am now old and ere long must die." 
He wanted to leave his brothers and sisters in peace. 
He heard that Smith came to destroy his country. 
He asked him what good it would do to destroy them 
that provided his food, to drive them into the woods 
where they must feed on roots and acorns ; " and be 
so hunted by you that I can neither rest, eat nor 
sleep, but my tired men must watch, and if a twig but 
break every one crieth, there cometh Captain Smith !" 
They might live in peace, and trade, if Smith would 
only lay aside his arms. Smith, in return, boasted of his 
power to get provisions, and said that he had only 
been restrained from violence by his love for Powhatan ; 
that the Indians came armed to Jamestown, and it 
was the habit of the whites to wear their arms. Pow- 
hatan then contrasted the liberality of Newport, and 
told Smith that while he had used him more kindly 
than any other chief, he had received from him (Smith) 
the least kindness of any. 



I609] SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 15/ 

Believing that the palaver was only to get an oppor- 
tunity to cut his throat, Smith got the savages to break 
the ice in order to bring up the barge and load it with 
corn, and gave orders for his soldiers to land and sur- 
prise Powhatan; meantime, to allay his suspicions, 
telling him the lie that next day he would lay aside 
his arms and trust Powhatan's promises. But Pow- 
hatan was not to be caught with such chaff. Leaving 
two or three women to talk with the Captain, he 
secretly fled away with his women, children, and lug- 
gage. When Smith perceived this treachery he fired 
into the "naked devils " who were in sight. The next 
day Powhatan sent to excuse his flight, and presented 
him a bracelet and chain of pearl and vowed eternal 
friendship. 

With matchlocks lighted, Smith forced the Indians 
to load the boats ; but as they were aground, and 
could not be got off till high water, he was com- 
pelled to spend the night on shore. Powhatan and 
the treacherous Dutchmen are represented as plot- 
ting to kill Smith that night. Provisions were to 
be brought him with professions of friendship, and 
Smith was to be attacked while at supper. The In- 
dians, with all the merry sports they could devise, 
spent the time till night, and then returned to Pow- 
hatan. 

The plot was frustrated in the providence of God 
by a strange means. " For Pocahuntas his dearest 
jewele and daughter in that dark night came 
through the irksome woods, and told our Captaine 
good cheer should be sent us by and by ; but Pow- 
hatan and all the power he could make would after 
come and kill us all, if they that brought it could 
not kill us with our own weapons when we were at 
supper. Therefore if we would live she wished us 



158 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

presently to be gone. Such things as she delighted 
in he would have given her ; but with the tears roll- 
ing down her cheeks she said she durst not to be 
seen to have any ; for if Powhatan should know it, 
she were but dead, and so she ran away by herself 
as she came." * 

In less than an hour ten burly fellows arrived 
with great platters of victuals, and begged Smith 
to put out the matches (the smoke of which made 
them sick) and sit down and eat. Smith, on his 
guard, compelled them to taste each dish, and then 
sent them back to Powhatan. All night the whites 
watched, but though the savages lurked about, no 
attack was made. Leaving the four Dutchmen to 
build Powhatan's house, and an Englishman to 
shoot game for him. Smith next evening departed 
for Pamaunky. 

No sooner had he gone than two of the Dutch- 
men made their way overland to Jamestown, and, 
pretending Smith had sent them, procured arms, 
tools, and clothing. They induced also half a dozen 
sailors, " expert thieves," to accompany them to live 
with Powhatan ; and altogether they stole, besides 
powder and shot, fifty swords, eight pieces, eight 
pistols, and three hundred hatchets. Edward Boyn-» 
ton and Richard Savage, who had been left with 

* This instance of female devotion is exactly paralleled in 
D'Albertis' "New Guinea." Abia, a pretty Biota girl of sev- 
enteen, made her way to his solitary habitation at the peril of 
her life, to inform him that the men of Rapa would shortly bring 
him insects and other presents, in order to get near him with- 
out suspicion, and then kill him. He tried to reward the brave 
girl by hanging a gold chain about her neck, but she refused it, 
saying it would betray her. He could only reward her with a 
fervent kiss, upon which she fled. Smith omits that part of the 
incident. 



1609] SMITirs PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. 1 59 

Powhatan, seeing the treachery, endeavored to es- 
cape, but were apprehended by the Indians. 

At Pamaunky there was the same sort of palaver 
with Opechancanough, the king, to whom Smith 
the year before had expounded the mysteries of his- 
tory, geography, and astronomy. After much fenc- 
ing in talk. Smith, with fifteen companions, went up 
to the King's house, where presently he found him- 
self betrayed and surrounded by seven hundred 
armed savages, seeking his life. His company 
being dismayed. Smith restored their courage by a 
speech, and then, boldly charging the King with in- 
tent to murder him, he challenged him to a single 
combat on an island in the river, each to use his 
own arms, but Smith to be as naked as the King. 
The King still professed friendship, and laid a great 
present at the door, about which the Indians lay in 
ambush to kill Smith, But this hero, according to his 
own account, took prompt measures. He marched 
out to the King where he stood guarded by fifty of 
his chiefs, seized him by his long hair in the midst 
of his men, and pointing a pistol at his breast led 
him trembling and near dead with fear amongst all 
his people. The King gave up his arms, and the 
savages, astonished that any man dare treat their 
king thus, threw down their bows. Smith, still 
holding the King by the hair, made them a bold ad- 
dress, offering peace or war. They chose peace. 

In the picture of this remarkable scene in the 
"General Historic," the savage is represented as 
gigantic in stature, big enough to crush the little 
Smith in an instant if he had but chosen. Having 
given the savages the choice to load his ship with 
corn or to load it himself with their dead carcasses, 
the Indians so thronged in with their commodities 



l6o CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

that Smith was tired of receiving them, and leaving 
his comrades to trade, he lay down to rest. When 
he was asleep the Indians, armed some with clubs, 
and some with old English swords, entered into the 
house. Smith awoke in time, seized his arms, and 
others coming to his rescue, they cleared the house. 

While enduring these perils, sad news was 
brought from Jamestown. Mr. Scrivener, who had 
letters from England (writes Smith) urging him to 
make himself Caesar or nothing, declined in his 
affection for Smith, and began to exercise extra 
authority. Against the advice of the others, he needs 
must make a journey to the Isle of Hogs, taking 
with him in the boat Capt. Waldo, Anthony Gos- 
noU (or Gosnold, believed to be a relative of Capt, 
Bartholomew Gosnold), and eight others. The boat 
was overwhelmed in a storm, and sunk, no one 
knows how or where. The savages were the first 
to discover the bodies of the lost. News of this 
disaster was brought to Capt. Smith (who did not 
disturb the rest by making it known) by Richard 
Wiffin, who encountered great dangers on the way. 
Lodging overnight at Powhatan's, he saw great 
preparations for war, and found himself in peril. 
Pocahontas hid him for a time, and by her means, 
and extraordinary bribes, in three days' travel he 
reached Smith. 

Powhatan, according to Smith, threatened death 
to his followers if they did not kill Smith. At one 
time swarms of natives, unarmed, came bringing 
great supplies of provisions ; this was to put Smith 
off his guard, surround him with hundreds of 
savages, and slay him by an ambush. But he also 
laid an ambush and got the better of the crafty foe 
with a superior craft. They sent him poisoned 



i6o9j SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS. l6l 

food, which made his company sick, but was fatal 
to no one. Smith apologizes for temporizing with 
the Indians at this time, by explaining that his pur- 
pose was to surprise Powhatan and his store of pro- 
visions. But when they stealthily stole up to the 
seat of that crafty chief, they found that those 
" damned Dutchmen " had caused Powhatan to 
abandon his new house at Werowocomoco, and to 
carry away all his corn and provisions. 

The reward of this wearisome winter campaign 
was two hundred weight of deer-suet and four 
hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn for the 
general store. They had not to show such murder- 
ing and destroying as the Spaniards in their " rela- 
tions," nor heaps and mines of gold and silver ; the 
land of Virginia was barbarous and ill-planted, and 
without precious jewels, but no Spanish relation 
could show, with such scant means, so much coun- 
try explored, so many natives reduced to obedience, 
with so little bloodshed. 



CHAPTER XII. 

TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 

WITHOUT entering at all into the consideration 
of the character of the early settlers of Virginia 
and of Massachusetts, one contrast forces itself upon 
the mind as we read the narratives of the different 
plantations. In Massachusetts there was from the 
beginning a steady purpose to make a permanent 
settlement and colony, and nearly all those who 
came over worked, with more or less friction, with 
this end before them. The attempt in Virginia 
partook more of the character of a temporary ad- 
venture. In Massachusetts from the beginning a 
commonwealth was in view. In Virginia, although 
the London promoters desired a colony to be fixed 
that would be profitable to themselves, and many 
of the adventurers, Captain Smith among them, 
desired a permanent planting, a great majority of 
those who went thither had only in mind the ad- 
vantages of trade, the excitement of a free and 
licentious life, and the adventure of something new 
and startling. It was long before the movers in it 
gave up the notion of discovering precious metals 
or a short way to the South Sea. The troubles the 
primitive colony endured resulted quite as much 
from its own instability of purpose, recklessness and 
insubordination, as from the hostility of the Indians. 
The majority spent their time in idleness, quarrel- 
ing, and plotting mutiny. 



1609] TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT 1 63 

The ships departed for England in December, 
1608. When Smith returned from his expedition 
for food in the winter of 1609, he found that all the 
provisions except what he had gathered was so 
rotted from the rain, and eaten by rats and worms, 
that the hogs would scarcely. eat it. Yet this had 
been the diet of the soldiers, who had consumed 
the victuals and accomplished nothing except to let 
the savages have the most of the tools and a good 
part of the arms. 

Taking stock of what he brought in, Smith found 
food enough to last till the next harvest, and at 
once organized the company into bands of ten or 
fifteen, and compelled them to go to work. Six 
hours a day were devoted to labor, and the re- 
mainder to rest and merry exercises. Even with 
this liberal allowance of pastime a great part of the 
colony still sulked. Smith made them a short ad- 
dress, exhibiting his power in the letters-patent, 
and assuring them that he would enforce discipline 
and punish the idle and fro ward; telling them that 
those that did not work should not eat, and that the 
labor of forty or fifty industrious men should not 
be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle 
loiterers. He made a public table of good and bad 
conduct; but even with this inducement the worst 
had to be driven to work by punishment or the fear 
of it. 

The Dutchmen with Powhatan continued to make 
trouble, and confederates in the camp supplied them 
with powder and shot, swords and tools. Pow- 
hatan kept the whites w^ho were with him to in- 
struct the Indians in the art of war. They expected 
other whites to join them, and those not coming, 
they sent Francis, their companion, disguised as an 



'164 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

Indian, to find out the cause. He came to the Glass 
house in the woods a mile from Jamestown, which 
was the rendezvous for all their villainy. Here 
they laid an ambush of forty men for Smith, who 
hearing of the Dutchman, went thither to apprehend 
him. The rascal had gone, and Smith, sending 
twenty soldiers to follow and capture him, started 
alone from the Glass house to return to the fort. 
And now occurred another of those personal adven- 
tures which made Smith famous by his own narra- 
tion. 

On his way he encountered the King of Paspa- 
hegh, "a most strong, stout savage," who seeing 
that Smith had only his falchion, attempted to shoot 
him. Smith grappled him; the savage prevented his 
drawing his blade, and bore him into the river to 
drown him. Long they struggled in the water, 
when the President got the savage by the throat 
and nearly strangled him, and drawing his weapon, 
was about to cut off his head, when the King begged 
his life so pitifully, that Smith led him prisoner to 
the fort and put him in chains. 

In the pictures of this achievement, the savage is 
represented as about twice the size and stature of 
Smith; another illustration that this heroic soul 
was never contented to take one of his size. 

The Dutchman was captured, who, notwithstand- 
ing his excuses that he had escaped from Powhatan 
and did not intend to return, but was only walking 
in the woods to gather walnuts, on the testimony 
of Paspahegh of his treachery, was also " laid by the 
heels." Smith now proposed to Paspahegh to spare 
his life if he would induce Powhatan to send back 
the renegade Dutchmen. The messengers for this 
purpose reported that the Dutchmen, though not 



1609] TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 1 65 

detained by Powhatan, would not come, and the 
Indians said they could not bring them on their 
backs fifty miles through the woods. Daily the 
King's wives, children, and people came to visit 
him, and brought presents to procure peace and his 
release. While this was going on, the King, though 
fettered, escaped. A pursuit only resulted in a vain 
fight with the Indians. Smith then made prisoners 
of two Indians who seemed to be hanging around 
the camp, Kemps and Tussore, " the two most exact 
villains in all the country," who would betray their 
own king and kindred for a piece of copper, and 
sent them with a force of soldiers, under Percy, 
against Paspahegh. The expedition burned his 
house, but did not capture the fugitive. Smith 
then went against them himself, killed six or seven, 
burned their houses, and took their boats and fish- 
ing wires. Thereupon the savages sued for peace, 
and an amnesty was established that lasted as long 
as Smith remained in the country. 

Another incident occurred about this time which 
greatly raised Smith's credit in all that country. 
The Chicahomanians, who always were friendly 
traders, were great thieves. One of them stole a 
pistol, and two proper young fellows, brothers, 
known to be his confederates, were apprehended. 
One of them was put in the dungeon and the other 
sent to recover the pistol within twelve hours, in 
default of which his brother would be hanged. The 
President, pitying the wretched savage in the dun- 
geon, sent him some victuals and charcoal for a 
fire. " Ere midnight his brother returned with the 
pistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was so 
smothered with the smoke he had made, and so 
piteously burnt, that we found him dead. The 



l66 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. \K\. 30 

Other most lamentably bewailed his death, and 
broke forth in such bitter agonies, that the Presi- 
dent, to quiet him, told him that if hereafter they 
would not steal, he would make him alive again; 
but he (Smith) little thought he could be recovered." 
Nevertheless, by a liberal use of aqua vitcE and vine- 
gar the Indian was brought again to life, but " so 
drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the 
which as much tormented and grieved the other as 
before to see him dead." Upon further promise of 
good behavior Smith promised to bring the Indian 
out of this malady also, and so laid him by a fire to 
sleep. In the morning the savage had recovered 
his perfect senses, his wounds were dressed, and the 
brothers with presents of copper were sent away 
well contented. This was spread among the sav- 
ages for a miracle, that Smith could make a man 
alive that was dead. He narrates a second incident 
which served to give the Indians a wholesome fear 
of the whites: " Another ingenious savage of Pow- 
hatan having gotten a great bag of powder and the 
back of an armour at Werowocomoco, amongst a 
many of his companions, to show his extraordinary 
skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen the 
soldiers at Jamestown. But he dried it so long, 
they peeping over it to see his skill, it took fire, and 
blew him to death, and one or two more, and the 
rest so scorched they had little pleasure any more 
to meddle with gunpowder." 

'' These and many other such pretty incidents," 
says Smith, "so amazed and affrighted Powhatan 
and his people that from all parts they desired 
peace;" stolen articles were returned, thieves sent 
to Jamestown for punishment, and the whole coun- 
try became as free for the whites as for the Indians." 



1609] TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 1 6/ 

And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a pros- 
perous period of three months, the longest season 
of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but only a respite 
from greater disasters. The friendship of the In- 
dians and the temporary subordination of the set- 
tlers we must attribute to Smith's vigor, shrewd- 
ness, and spirit of industry. It was much easier to 
manage the Indians than the idle and vicious men 
that composed the majority of the settlement. 

In these three months they manufactured three 
or four lasts (fourteen barrels in a last) of tar, 
pitch, and soap-ashes, produced some specimens of 
glass, dug a well of excellent sweet water in the 
fort, which they had wanted for two years, built 
twenty houses, repaired the church, planted thirty 
or forty acres of ground, and erected a block-house 
on the neck of the island, where a garrison was 
stationed to trade with the savages and permit nei- 
ther whites nor Indians to pass except on the Presi- 
dent's order. Even the domestic animals partook 
the industrious spirit: "of three sowes in eighteen 
months increased 60, and od Pigs; and neare 500 
chickings brought up themselves without having 
any meat given them." The hogs were transferred 
to Hog Isle, where another block-house was built 
and garrisoned, and the garrison were permitted to 
take " exercise" in cutting down trees and making 
clapboards and wainscot. They were building a 
fort on high ground, intended for an easily defend- 
ed retreat, when a woful discovery put an end to 
their thriving plans. 

Upon examination of the corn stored in casks, it 
was found half-rotten, and the rest consumed by 
rats, which had bred in thousands from the few 
which came over in the ships. The colony was now 



1 68 CAP TA IN JOHN SMI Til. [^t. 30 

at its wits end, for there was nothing to eat except 
the wild products of the country. In this prospect 
of famine, the two Indians, Kemps and Tussore, 
who had been kept fettered while showing the 
whites how to plant the fields, were turned loose ; 
but they were unwilling to depart from such con- 
genial company. The savages in the neighborhood 
showed their love by bringing to camp, for sixteen 
days, each day at least a hundred squirrels, tur- 
keys, deer, and other wild beasts. But without 
corn, the work of fortifying and building had to be 
abandoned, and the settlers dispersed to provide 
victuals. A party of sixty or eighty men under 
Ensign Laxon were sent down the river to live on 
oysters ; some twenty went with Lieut. Percy to try 
fishing at Point Comfort, where for six weeks not a 
net was cast, owing to the sickness of Percy, who 
had been burnt with gunpowder ; and another 
party, going to the Falls with Master West, found 
nothing to eat but a few acorns. 

Up to this time the whole colony w^as fed by the 
labors of thirty or forty men: there was more stur- 
geon than could be devoured by dog and man ; it 
was dried, pounded, and mixed with caviare, sorrel 
and other herbs, to make bread ; bread was also 
made of the " Tockwhogh" root, and with the fish 
and these wild fruits they lived very well. But 
there were one hundred and fifty of the colony who 
would rather starve or eat each other than help 
gather food. These "distracted^ gluttonous loiter- 
ers" would have sold anything they had — tools, 
arms, and their houses — for anything the savages 
would bring them to eat. Hearing that there was 
a basket of corn at Powhatan's, fifty miles away, 
they would have exchanged all their property for 



1609] TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 1 69 

it. To satisfy their factious humors, Smith suc- 
ceeded in getting half of it: "they would have sold 
their souls," he says, for the other half, though not 
sufficient to last them a week. 

The clamors became so loud that Smith punished 
the ringleader, one Dyer, a crafty fellow, and his 
ancient maligner, and then made one of his concili- 
atory addresses. Having shown them how impos- 
sible it was to get corn, and reminded them of his 
own exertions, and that he had always shared with 
them anything he had, he told them that he should 
stand their nonsense no longer; he should force the 
idle to work, and punish them if they railed; if any 
attempted to escape to Newfoundland in the pin- 
nace they would arrive at the gallows; the sick 
should not starve; every man able must work, and 
every man who did not gather as much in a day as 
he did should be put out of the fort as a drone. 

Such was the effect of this speech that of the two 
hundred only seven died in this pinching time, ex- 
cept those who were drowned; no man died of 
want. Capt. Winne and Master Leigh had died 
before this famine occurred. Many of the men 
were billeted among the savages, who used them 
well, and stood in such awe of the power at the fort 
that they dared not wrong the whites out of a pin. 
The Indians caught Smith's humor, and some of 
the men who ran away to seek Kemps and Tussore 
were mocked and ridiculed, and had applied to 
them Smith's law of ''who cannot work must not 
eat;" they were almost starved and beaten nearly to 
death. After amusing himself with them, Kemps 
returned the fugitives, whom Smith punished until 
they were content to labor at home, rather than ad- 
venture to live idly among the savages, "of whom," 



170 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

says our shrewd chronicler, " there was more hope 
to make better christians and good subjects than 
the one half of them that counterfeited themselves 
both." The Indians were in such subjection that 
any who were punished at the fort would beg the 
President not to tell their chief, for they would be 
again punished at home and sent back for another 
round. 

We hear now of the last efforts to find traces of 
the lost colony of Sir Walter Raleigh. Master 
Sicklemore returned from the Chawwonoke (Chow- 
an River) with no tidings of them; and Master 
Powell, and Anas Todkill who had been conducted 
to the Mangoags, in the regions south of the James, 
could learn nothing but that they were all dead. 
The king of this country was a very proper, devout 
and friendly man; he acknowledged that our God 
exceeded his as much as our guns did his bows and 
arrows, and asked the President to pray his God for 
him, for all the gods of the Mangoags were angry. 

The Dutchmen and one Bentley, another fugitive, 
who were with Powhatan, continued to plot against 
the colony, and the President employed a Swiss, 
named William Volday, to go and regain them with 
promises of pardon. Volday turned out to be a 
hypocrite, and a greater rascal than the others. 
Many of the discontented in the fort were brought 
into 'the scheme, which was, with Powhatan's aid, 
to surprise and destroy Jamestown. News of this 
getting about in the fort, there was a demand 
that the President should cut off these Dutchmen. 
Percy and Cuderington, two gentlemen, volun- 
teered to do it; but Smith sent instead Master Wif- 
fin and Jeffrey Abbot, to go and stab them or shoot 
them. But the Dutchmen were too shrewd to be 



i609] TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 17I 

caught, and Powhatan sent a conciliatory message 
that he did not detain the Dutchmen, nor hinder 
the slaying of them. 

While this plot was simmering, and Smith was 
surrounded by treachery inside the fort and out- 
side, and the savages were being taught that King 
James would kill Smith because he had used the 
Indians so unkindly, Capt. Argall and Master 
Thomas Sedan arrived out in a well-furnished ves- 
sel, sent by Master Cornelius to trade and fish for 
sturgeon. The wine and other good provision of 
the ship were so opportune to the necessities of the 
colony that the President seized them. Argall lost 
his voyage; his ship was revictualed and sent back 
to England, but one may be sure that this event was 
so represented as to increase the fostered dissatis- 
faction with Smith in London. For one reason or 
another, most of the persons who returned had 
probably carried a bad report of him. Argall 
brought to Jamestown from London a report of 
great complaints of him for his dealings with the 
savages and not returning ships freighted with the 
products of the country. Misrepresented in Lon- 
don, and unsupported and conspired against in 
Virginia, Smith felt his fall near at hand. On the 
face of it he was the victim of envy and the rascal- 
ity of incompetent and bad men; but whatever his 
capacity for dealing with savages, it must be con- 
fessed that he lacked something which conciliates 
success with one's own people. A new commission 
was about to be issued, and a great supply was in 
preparation under Lord De La Ware. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

smith's last days in VIRGINIA. 

THE London company were profoundly dissatis- 
fied with the results of the Virginia colony. 
The South Sea was not discovered, no gold had 
turned up, there were no valuable products from 
the new land, and the promoters received no profits 
on their ventures. With their expectations, it is not 
to be wondered at that they were still further an- 
noyed by the quarreling amongst the colonists 
themselves, and wished to begin over again. 

A new charter, dated May 23, 1609, with enlarged 
powers, was got from King James. Hundreds of 
corporators were named, and even thousands were 
included in the various London trades and guilds 
that were joined in the enterprise. Among the 
names we find that of Captain John Smith. But 
he was out of the Council, nor was he given then or 
ever afterward any place or employment in Vir- 
ginia, or in the management of its affairs. The 
grant included all the American coast two hundred 
miles north and two hundred miles south of Point 
Comfort, and all the territory from the coast up 
into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and 
north-west. A leading object of the project still 
being (as we have seen it was with Smith's precious 
crew at Jamestown) the conversion and reduction 
of the natives to the true religion, no one was per- 



i6o9] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1/3 

mitted in the colony who had not taken the oath of 
supremacy. 

Under this charter the Council gave a commis- 
sion to Sir Thomas West, Lord Delaware, Captain- 
General of Virginia; Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant- 
General; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain 
Newport, Vice-Admiral; Sir Thomas Dale, High 
Marshal; Sir Frederick Wainman, General of the 
Horse, and many other officers for life. 

With so many wealthy corporators money flowed 
into the treasury, and a great expedition was read- 
ily fitted out. Towards the end of May, 1609, there 
sailed from England nine ships and five hundred 
people, under the command of Sir Thomas Gates, 
Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport. Each 
of these commanders had a commission, and the 
one who arrived first was to call in the old commis- 
sion; as they could not agree, they all sailed in one 
ship, the Sea Ve/iture. 

This brave expedition was involved in a contest 
with a hurricane; one vessel was sunk, and the Sea 
Venture, with the three commanders, one hundred 
and fifty men, the new commissioners, bills of lad- 
ing, all sorts of instructions, and much provision, 
was wrecked on the Bermudas. With this company 
was William Strachey, of whom we shall hear more 
hereafter. Seven vessels reached Jamestown, and 
brought, among other annoyances. Smith's old en- 
emy, Captain Ratcliffe, alias Sicklemore, in com- 
mand of a ship. Among the company were also 
Captains Martin, Archer, Wood, Webbe, Moore, 
King, Davis, and several gentlemen of good means, 
and a crowd of the riff-raff of London. Some of 
these Captains whom Smith had sent home, now 
returned with new pretensions, and had on the voy- 



174 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

age prejudiced the company against him. When 
the fleet was first espied the President thought it 
was Spaniards, and prepared to defend himself, 
the Indians promptly coming to his assistance. 

This hurricane tossed about another expedition still 
more famous, that of Henry Hudson, who had sailed 
from England on his third voyage toward Nova Zem- 
bla March 25th, and in July and August was beating 
down the Atlantic coast. On the i8th of August he 
entered the Capes of Virginia, and sailed a little way 
up the Bay. He knev, he was at the mouth of the 
James River, "where our Englishmen are," as he says. 
The next day a gale from the north-east made him 
fear being driven aground in the shallows, and he put 
to sea. The storm continued for several days. On 
the 2 1 St "a sea broke over the fore-course and split 
it;" and that night something more ominous occurred: 
" that night [the chronicle records] our cat ran crying 
from one side of the ship to the other, looking over- 
board, which made us to wonder, but we saw nothing." 
On the 26th they were again off the bank of Virginia, 
and in the very bay and in sight of the islands they 
had seen on the 18th. It appeared to Hudson "a 
great bay with rivers," but too shallow to explore with- 
out a small boat. After lingering till the 29th, without 
any suggestion of ascending the James, he sailed 
northward and made the lucky stroke of river explora- 
tion which immortalized him. 

It seems strange that he did not search for the 
English Colony, but the adventurers of that day were 
independent actors, and did not care to share with 
each other the glories of discovery. 

The first of the scattered fleet of Gates and Somers 
came in on the nth, and the rest straggled along dur- 
ing the three or four days following. It was a narrow 



i6o9] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1/5 

chance that Hudson missed them all, and one may- 
imagine that the fate of the Virginia colony and of the 
New York settlement would have been different if the 
explorer of the Hudson had gone up the Jamej. 

No sooner had the newcomers landed than trou- 
ble began. They would have deposed Smith on re- 
port of the new commission, but they could show 
no warrant. Smith professed himself willing to re- 
tire to England, but, seeing the new commission 
did not arrive, held on to his authority, and began 
to enforce it to save the whole colony from anarchy. 
He depicts the situation in a paragraph: ''To a 
thousand mischiefs these lewd Captains led this 
lewd company, wherein were many unruly gallants, 
packed thither by their friends to escape ill desti- 
nies, and those would dispose and determine of the 
government, sometimes to one, the next day to an- 
other; to-day the old commission must rule, to- 
morrow the new, the next day neither; in fine, they 
would rule all or ruin all; yet in charity we must 
endure them thus to destroy us, or by correcting 
their follies, have brought the world's censure upon 
us to be guilty of their blouds. Happie had we 
beene had they never arrived, and we forever aban- 
doned, as we were left to our fortunes; for on earth 
for their number was never more confusion or mis- 
ery than their factions occasioned." In this com- 
pany came a boy, named Henry Spelman, whose 
subsequent career possesses considerable interest. 

The President proceeded with his usual vigor: 
he "laid by the heels" the chief mischief-makers 
till he should get leisure to punish them; sent Mr. 
West with one hundred and twenty good men to 
the Falls to make a settlement; and dispatched 
Martin with near as many and their proportion of 



1/6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^1.30 

provisions to Nansemond, on the river of that name 
emptying into the James, obliquely opposite Point 
Comfort. 

Lieutenant Percy was sick and had leave to depart 
for England when he chose. The President's year 
being about expired, in accordance with the char- 
ter, he resigned, and Captain Martin was elected 
President. But knowing his inability, he, after hold- 
ing it three hours, resigned it to Smith, and went 
down to Nansemond. The tribe used him kindly, 
but he was so frightened with their noisy demon- 
stration of mirth that he surprised and captured the 
poor naked King with his houses, and began forti- 
fying his position, showing so much fear that the 
savages were emboldened to attack him, kill some 
of his men, release their King, and carry off a thou- 
sand bushels of corn which had been purchased, 
Martin not offering to intercept them. The fright- 
ened Captain sent to Smith for aid, who dispatched 
to him thirty good shot. Martin, too chicken-heart- 
ed to use them, came back with them to Jamestown, 
leaving his company to their fortunes. In this ad- 
venture the President commends the courage of 
one George Forrest, who, with seventeen arrows 
sticking into him and one shot through him, lived 
six or seven days. 

Meantime Smith, going up to the Falls to look 
after Captain West, met that hero on his way to 
Jamestown. He turned him back, and found that 
he had planted his colony on an unfavorable flat, 
subject not only to the overflowing of the river, but 
to more intolerable inconveniences. To place him 
more advantageously the President sent to Pow- 
hatan, offering to buy the place called Powhatan, 
promising to defend him against the Monacans, to 



i6og] SMITH'S LAST DAYS IiY VIRGINIA. 1 7/ 

pay him in copper, and make a general alliance of 
trade and friendship. 

But "those furies," as Smith calls West and his 
associates, refused to move to Powhatan or to ac- 
cept these conditions. They contemned his author- 
ity, expecting all the time the new commission, and, 
regarding all the Monacans country as full of gold 
determined that no one should interfere with them 
in the possession of it. Smith, however, was not 
intimidated from landing and attempting to quell 
their mutiny. In his " General Historic" it is writ- 
ten, " I doe more than wonder to think how onely 
with five men he either durst or would adventure 
as he did (knowing how greedy they were of his 
bloud) to come amongst them." He landed and 
ordered the arrest of the chief disturbers, but the 
crowd hustled him off. He seized one of their boats 
and escaped to the ship which contained the pro- 
vision. Fortunately the sailors were friendly and 
saved his life, and a considerable number of the 
better sort, seeing the malice of Ratcliffe and 
Archer, took Smith's part. 

Out of the occurrences at this new settlement 
grew many of the charges which were preferred 
against Smith. According to the " General Historic" 
the company of Ratcliffe and Archer was a disor- 
derl}^ rabble, constantly tormenting the Indians, 
stealing their corn, robbing their gardens, beating 
them, and breaking into their houses and taking 
them prisoners. The Indians daily complained to 
the President that these " protectors " he had given 
them were worse enemies than the Monacans, and 
desired his pardon if they defended themselves, 
since he could not punish their tormentors. They 
even proposed to fight for him against them. Smith 



1/8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^Et. 30 

says that after spending nine days in trying to re- 
strain them, and showing them how they deceived 
themselves with "great guilded hopes of the South 
Sea Mines," he abandoned them to their folly and 
set sail for Jamestown. 

No sooner was he under way than the savages at- 
tacked the fort,slew many of the whites who were out- 
side, rescued their friends who were prisoners, and 
thoroughly terrified the garrison. Smith's ship hap- 
pening to go aground half a league below, they sent 
off to him, and were glad to submit on any terms 
to his mercy. He "put by the heels" six or seven 
of the chief offenders, and transferred the colony 
to Powhatan, where were a fort capable of defense 
against all the savages in Virginia, dry houses for 
lodging, and two hundred acres of ground ready to 
be planted. This place, so strong and delightful in 
situation, they called Non-such. The savages ap- 
peared and exchanged captives, and all became 
friends again. 

At this moment, unfortunately, Capt. West re- 
turned. All the victuals and munitions having 
been put ashore, the old factious projects were re- 
vived. The soft-hearted West was made to believe 
that the rebellion had been solely on his account. 
Smith, seeing them bent on their own way, took 
the row-boat for Jamestown. The colony aban- 
doned the pleasant Non-such and returned to the 
open air at West's Fort. On his way down Smith 
met with the accident that suddenly terminated his 
career in Virginia. 

While he was sleeping in his boat his powder-bag 
was accidentally fired; the explosion tore the flesh 
from his body and thighs, nine or ten inches square, 
in the most frightful manner. To quench the tor- 



1609] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1 79 

meriting fire, frying him in his clothes, he leaped 
into the deep river, where, ere they could recover 
him, he was nearly drowned. In this pitiable con- 
dition, without either surgeon or surgery, he was 
to go nearly a hundred miles. 

It is now time for the appearance upon the scene 
of the boy Henry Spelman, with his brief narration, 
which touches this period of Smith's life. Henry 
Spelman was th^ third son of the distinguished 
antiquarian, Sir Henry Spelman, of Coughan, Nor- 
folk, who was married in 15 81. It is reasonably 
conjectured that he could not have been over twen- 
ty-one when in May, 1609, he joined the company 
going to Virginia. Henry was evidently a scape- 
grace, whose friends were willing to be rid of 
him. Such being his character, it is more than 
probable that he was shipped bound as an ap- 
prentice, and of course with the conditions of 
apprenticeship in like expeditions of that period — 
to be sold or bound out at the end of the voyage 
to pay for his passage. He remained for several 
years in Virginia, living most of the time among 
the Indians, and a sort of indifferent go-between 
of the savages and the settlers. According to 
his own story it was on October 20, 1609, that he 
was taken up the river to Powhatan by Capt. Smith, 
and it was in April, 16 13, that he was rescued from 
his easy-setting captivity on the Potomac by Capt. 
Argall. During his sojourn in Virginia, or more 
probably shortly after his return to England, he 
wrote a brief and bungling narration of his experi- 
ences in the colony, and a description of Indian 
life. The MS. was not printed in his time, but mis- 
laid or forgotten. By a strange series of chances 
it turned up in our day, and was identified and pre- 



l8o CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

pared for the press in 1861. Before the proof was 
read the type was accidentally broken up and the 
MS. again mislaid. Lost sight of for several years, 
it was recovered and a small number of copies of 
it were printed at London in 1872, edited by Mr. 
James F. Hunnewell. 

Spelman's narration would be very important if 
we could trust it. He appeared to have set down 
what he saw, and his story has a j:ertain simplicity 
that gains for it some credit. But he was a reck- 
less boy, unaccustomed to weigh evidence, and 
quite likely to write as facts the rumors that he 
heard. He took very readily to the ways of Indian 
life. Some years after, Spelman returned to Vir- 
ginia with the title of Captain, and in 161 7 we find 
this reference to him in the "General Historic": 
" Here, as at many other times, we are beholden to 
Capt. Henry Spilman, an interpreter, a gentleman 
that lived long time in this country, and sometimes 
a prisoner among the Salvages, and done much 
good service though but badly rewarded." Smith 
would probably not have left this on record had he 
been aware of the contents of the MS. that Spel- 
man had left for after-times. 

Spelman begins his Relation, from which I shall 
quote substantially, without following the spelling 
or noting all the interlineations, with the reason for 
his emigration, which was, "being in displeasure of 
my friends, and desirous to see other countries." 
After a brief account of the voyage and the joyful 
arrival at Jamestown, the Relation continues: 

" Having here unloaded our goods and bestowed some 
senight or fortnight in viewing the country, I was carried 
by Capt. Smith, our President, to the Falls, to the little 
Powhatan, where, unknown to me, he sold me to him for 



1609] SMITH'S LAST DAYS IN VIRGINIA. 181 

a town called Powhatan ; and, leaving me with him, the 
little Powhatan, he made known to Capt. West how he 
had bought a town for them to dwell in. Whereupon 
Capt. West, growing angry because he had bestowed cost 
to begin a town in another place, Capt. Smith desiring 
that Capt. West would come and settle himself there, but 
Capt. West, having bestowed cost to begin a town in an- 
other place, misliked it, and un kindness thereupon arising 
between them, Capt. Smith at that time replied little, but 
afterward combined with Powhatan to kill Capt. West, 
which plot took but small effect, for in the meantime 
Capt. Smith was apprehended and sent aboard for Eng- 
land." 

That this roving boy was "thrown in" as a make- 
weight in the trade for the town is not impossible; 
but that Smith combined with Powhatan to kill 
Capt. West is doubtless West's perversion of the 
offer of the Indians to fight on Smith's side against 
him. 

According to Spelman's Relation, he stayed only 
seven or eight days with the little Powhatan, when 
he got leave to go to Jamestown, being desirous to 
see the English and to fetch the small articles that 
belonged to him. The Indian King agreed to wait 
for him at that place, but he stayed too long, and on 
his return the little Powhatan had departed, and 
Spelman went back to Jamestown. Shortly after, 
the great Powhatan sent Thomas Savage with a 
present of venison to President Percy. Savage was 
loath to return alone, and Spelman was appointed to 
go with him, which he did willingly, as victuals 
were scarce in camp. He carried some copper and 
a hatchet, which he presented to Powhatan, and 
that Emperor treated him and his comrade very 
kindly, seating them at his own mess-table. After 
some three weeks of this life, Powhatan sent this 



1 82 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 30 

guileless youth down to decoy the English into his 
hands, promising to freight a ship with corn if they 
would visit him. Spelman took the message and 
brought back the English reply, whereupon Pow- 
hatan laid the plot which resulted in the killing of 
Capt. Ratcliffe and thirty-eight men, only two of 
his company escaping to Jamestown. Spelman 
gives two versions of this incident. During the 
massacre Spelman says that Powhatan sent him 
and Savage to a town some sixteen miles away. 
Smith's " General Historic" says that on this occa- 
sion " Pocahuntas saved a boy named Henry Spil- 
man that lived many years afterward, by her means, 
among the Patawomekes." Spelman says not a 
word about Pocahuntas. On the contrary, he de- 
scribes the visit of the King of the Patawomekes to 
Powhatan; says that the King took a fancy to him; 
that he and Dutch Samuel, fearing for their lives, 
escaped from Powhatan's towm; were pursued; that 
Samuel was killed, and that Spelman, after dodging 
about in the forest, found his way to the Potomac, 
where he lived with this good King Patomecke at 
a place called Pasptanzie for more than a year. 
Here he seems to have passed his time agreeably, 
for although he had occasional fights with the 
squaws of Patomecke, the King was always his 
friend, and so much was he attached to the boy 
that he would not give him up to Capt. Argall 
without some copper in exchange. 

When Smith returned wounded to Jamestown, he 
was physically in no condition to face the situation. 
With no medical attendance, his death was not im- 
probable. He had no strength to enforce discipline 
nor organize expeditions for supplies; besides, 
he was acting under a commission whose virtue 



i6o9] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1 83 

had expired, and the mutinous spirits rebelled 
against his authority. Ratcliffe, Archer, and the 
others who were awaiting trial conspired against 
him, and Smith says he would have been murdered 
in his bed if the murderer's heart had not failed 
him when he went to fire his pistol at the defense- 
less sick man. However, Smith was forced to 
yield to circumstances. No sooner had he given 
out that he would depart for England than they 
persuaded Mr. Percy to stay and act as President, 
and all eyes were turned in expectation of favor 
upon the new commanders. Smith being thus di- 
vested of authority, the most of the colony turned 
against him; many preferred charges, and began to 
collect testimony. " The ships were detained three 
weeks to get up proofs of his ill-conduct" — " time 
and charges," says Smith dryly, "that might much 
better have been spent." 

It must have enraged the doughty Captain, lying 
thus helpless, to see his enemies triumph, the most 
factious of the disturbers in the colony in charge 
of affairs, and become his accusers. Even at this 
distance we can read the account with little pa- 
tience, and should have none at all if the account 
were not edited by Smith himself. His revenge 
was in his good fortune in setting his own story 
afloat in the current of history. The first narrative 
of these events, published by Smith in his Oxford 
tract of 161 2, was considerably remodeled and 
changed in his "General Historie" of 1624. As we 
have said before, he had a progressive memory, 
and his opponents ought to be thankful that the 
pungent Captain did not live to work the story 
over a third time. 

It is no doubt true, however, that but for the 



184 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.«:t. 30 

accident to our hero, he would have continued to 
rule till the arrival of Gates and Somers with the 
new commissions; as he himself says, "but had 
that unhappy blast not happened, he would quickly 
have qualified the heat of those humors and fac- 
tions, had the ships but once left them and us to 
our fortunes; and have made that provision from 
among the salvages, as we neither feared Spaniard, 
Salvage, nor famine: nor would have left Virginia 
nor our lawful authority, but at as dear a price as 
we had bought it, and paid for it." 

He doubtless would have fought it out against 
all comers; and who shall say that he does not merit 
the glowing eulogy on himself which he inserts in 
his General History ? " What shall I say but this, 
we left him, that in all his proceedings made justice 
his first guide, and experience his second, ever 
hating baseness, sloth, pride, and indignity, more 
than any dangers; that upon no danger would send 
them where he would not lead them himself; that 
would never see us want what he either had or 
could by any means get us; that would rather want 
than borrow; or starve than not pay; that loved 
action more than words, and hated falsehood and 
covetousness worse than death; whose adventures 
were our lives, and whose loss our deaths." 

A handsomer thing never was said of another 
man than Smith could say of himself, but he be- 
lieved it, as also did many of his comrades, we 
must suppose. He suffered detraction enough, but 
he suffered also abundant eulogy both in verse and 
prose. Among his eulogists, of course, is not the 
factious Capt. Ratcliffe. In the English Colonial 
State papers, edited by Mr. Noel Sainsbury, is a 
note, dated Jamestown, October 4, 1609, from Capt 



i6og] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1 85 

"John Radclyffe comenly called," to the Earl of 
Salisbury, which contains this remark upon Smith's 
departure after the arrival of the last supply: " They 
heard that all the Council were dead but Capt. 
[John] Smith, President, who reigned sole Gov- 
ernor, and is now sent home to answer some mis- 
demeanor." 

Capt. Archer also regards this matter in a differ- 
ent light from that in which Smith represents it. 
In a letter from Jamestown, written in August, he 
says: 

"In as much as the President [Smith], to strengthen his 
authority, accorded with the variances and gave not any 
due respect to many worthy gentlemen that were in our 
ships, wherefore they generally, with my consent, chose 
Master West, my Lord De La Ware's brother, their Gov- 
ernor or President de bene esse, in the absence of Sir 
Thomas Gates, or if he be miscarried by sea, then to con- 
tinue till we heard news from our counsel! in England. 
This choice of him they made not to disturb the old Pres- 
ident during his term, but as his authority expired, then 
to take upon him the sole government, with such assist- 
ants of the captains or discreet persons as the colony 
afforded. 

" Perhaps you shall have it blamed as a mutinie by such 
as retaine old malice, but Master West, Master Piercie, 
and all the respected gentlemen of worth in Virginia, can 
and will testify otherv/ise upon their oaths. For the 
King's patent we ratified, but refused to be governed by 
the President — that is, after his time was expired — and 
only subjected ourselves to Master West, whom we labor 
to have next President." 

It is clear from this statement that the attempt 
was made to supersede Smith even before his time 
expired, and without any authority (since the new 
commissions were still with Gates and Somers in 
Bermuda), for the reason that Smith did not pay 



186 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 30 

proper respect to the newly arrived "gentlemen." 
Smith was no doubt dictatorial and offensive, and 
from his point of view he was the only man who 
understood Virginia, and knew how successfully to 
conduct the affairs of the colony. If this assump- 
tion were true it would be none the less disagreea- 
ble to the new-comers. 

At the time of Smith's deposition the colony was 
in prosperous condition. The " General Historie " 
says that he left them " with three ships, seven 
boats, commodities ready to trade, the harvest 
newly gathered, ten weeks' provision in store, four 
hundred ninety and odd persons, twenty-four pieces 
of ordnance, three hundred muskets, snaphances 
and firelocks, shot, powder and match sufficient, 
curats, pikes, swords, and morrios, more than men; 
the Salvages, their language and habitations well 
known to a hundred well-trained and expert sol- 
diers; nets for fishing; tools of all kinds to work; 
apparel to supply our wants; six mules and a horse; 
five or six hundred swine; as many hens and chick- 
ens; some goats; some sheep; what was brought 
or bred there remained." Jamestown was also 
strongly palisaded and contained some fifty or sixty 
houses; besides there were five or six other forts 
and plantations, " not so sumptuous as our succer- 
ers expected, they were better than they provided 
any for us." 

These expectations might well be disappointed if 
they were founded upon the pictures of forts and 
fortifications in Virginia and in the Somers Islands, 
which appeared in De Bry and in the " General 
Historie," where they appear as massive stone struc- 
tures with all the finish and elegance of the Eu- 
ropean military science of the day. 



i6o9] SMITH'S LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA. 1 87 

Notwithstanding these ample provisions for the 
colony, Smith had small expectation that it would 
thrive without him. " They regarding nothing," 
he says, " but from hand to mouth, did consume 
what we had, took care for nothing but to perfect 
some colorable complaint against Captain Smith." 

Nor was the composition of the colony such as to 
beget high hopes of it. There was but one car- 
penter, and three others that desired to learn, two 
blacksmiths, ten sailors; those called laborers were 
for the most part footmen, brought over to wait 
upon the adventurers, who did not know what a 
day's work was — all the real laborers were the 
Dutchmen and Poles and some dozen others. " For 
all the rest were poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving 
men, libertines, and such like, ten times more fit to 
spoil a commonwealth than either begin one or help 
to maintain one. For when neither the fear of 
God, nor the law, nor shame, nor displeasure of 
their friends could rule them here, there is small 
hope ever to bring one in twenty of them to be good 
there." Some of them proved more industrious 
than was expected; " but ten good workmen would 
have done more substantial work in a day than ten 
of them in a week." 

The disreputable character of the majority of 
these colonists is abundantly proved by other con- 
temporary testimony. In the letter of the Governor 
and Council of Virginia to the London Company, 
dated Jamestown, July 7th, 16 10, signed by Lord 
De La Ware, Thomas Gates, George Percy, Ferd. 
Wenman and William Strachey, and probably com- 
posed by Strachey, after speaking of the bountiful 
capacity of the country, the writer exclaims: "Only 
let me trulyacknowledge there are not one hundred 



l88 CAPTAIN JOHN SMiriL [^Et. 30 

or two of deboisht hands, dropt forth by year after 
year, with penury and leysure, ill provided for be- 
fore they come, and worse governed when they are 
here, men of such distempered bodies and infected 
minds, whom no examples daily before their eyes^ 
either of goodness or punishment, can deterr from 
their habituall impieties, or terrifie from a shame- 
ful death, that must be the carpenters and workmen 
in this so glorious a building." 

The chapter in the "General Historic" relating to 
Smith's last days in Virginia was transferred from 
the narrative in the appendix to Smith's " Map of 
Virginia," Oxford 16 12, but much changed in the 
transfer. In the " General Historic " Smith says 
very little about the nature of the charges against 
him. In the original narrative signed by Richard 
Pots and edited by Smith, there are more details of 
the charges. One omitted passage is this: "Now 
all those Smith had either whipped or punished, or 
in any way disgraced, had free power and liberty 
to say or sweare anything, and from a whole armful 
of their examinations this was concluded." 

Another omitted passage relates to the charge, to 
which reference is made in the " General Historic," 
that Smith proposed to marry Pocahontas : 

" Some propheticall spirit calculated he had the salvages 
in such subjection, he would have made himself a king by 
marrying Pocahuntas, Powhatan's daughter. It is true 
she was the very nonpareil of his kingdom, and at most 
not past thirteen or fourteen years of age, Very oft she 
came to our fort with what she could get for Capt. Smith, 
that ever loved and used all the country well, but her es- 
pecially he ever much respected, and she so well requited 
it, that when her father intended to have surprised him, 
she by stealth in the dark night came through the wild 



1609J SMI TIPS LAST DA YS IN VIRGINIA, 1 89 

woods and told him of it. But her marriage could in no 
way have entitled him by any right to the kingdom, nor 
was it ever suspected he had such a thought, or more re- 
garded her or any of them than in honest reason and dis- 
cretion he might. If he would he might have married 
her, or have done what he listed. For there were none 
that could have hindered his determination." 

It is fair, in passing, to remark that the above 
allusion to the night visit of Pocahontas to Smith 
in this tract of 16 12 helps to confirm the story, 
which does not appear in the previous narration of 
Smith's encounter with Powhatan at Werowoco- 
moco in the same trace, but is celebrated in the 
'' General Historic." It is also hinted plainly enough 
that Smith might have taken the girl to wife, In- 
dian fashion. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH. 

IT is necessary to follow for a time the fortune of 
the Virginia colony after the departure of Capt. 
Smith. Of its disasters and speedy decline there 
is no more doubt than there is of the opinion of 
Smith that these were owing to his absence. The 
savages, we read in his narration, no sooner knew 
he was gone than they all revolted and spoiled and 
murdered all they encountered. 

The day before Capt. Smith sailed, Capt. Davis 
arrived in a small pinnace with sixteen men. These, 
with a company from the fort under Capt. Rat- 
cliffe, were sent down to Point Comfort. Capt. 
West and Capt. Martin, having lost their boats and 
half their men among the savages at the Falls, re- 
turned to Jamestown. The colony now lived upon 
what Smith had provided, " and now they had pres- 
idents with all their appurtenances. President 
Percy was so sick he could neither go nor stand. 
Provisions getting short, West and Ratcliffe went 
abroad to trade, and Ratcliffe and twenty-eight of 
his men were slain by an ambush of Powhatan's, as 
before related in the narrative of Henry Spelman. 
Powhatan cut off their boats, and refused to trade, 
so that Capt. West set sail for England. What en- 
sued cannot be more vividly told than in the " Gen- 
eral Historic ": 

" Now we all found the losse of Capt. Smith, yea his 
greatest maligners could now curse his losse ; as for corne 



i6o9-io] THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH. I9I 

provision and contribution from the salvages, we had 
nothing but mortall wounds, with clubs and arrowes ; as 
for our hogs, hens, goats, sheep, horse, or what lived, oui 
commanders, officers and salvages daily consumed them, 
some small proportions sometimes we tasted, till all was 
devoured ; then swords, arms, pieces or anything was 
traded with the salvages, whose cruell fingers were so oft 
imbrued in our blouds, that what by their crueltie, our 
Governor's indiscretion, and the losse of our ships, oifive 
ktmdred vf'ithm six months after Capt. Smith's departure, 
there remained not past sixty men, women and children, 
most miserable and poore creatures ; and those were pre- 
served for the most part, by roots, herbes, acorns, walnuts, 
berries, now and then a little fish ; they that had starch in 
these extremities made no small use of it, yea, even the 
very skinnes of our horses. Nay, so great was our fam- 
ine, that a salvage we slew and buried, the poorer sort 
took him up again and eat him, and so did divers one 
another boyled, and stewed with roots and herbs. And 
one Smongst the rest did kill his wife, pondered her and 
had eaten part of her before it was knowne, for which he 
was executed, as he well deserved ; now whether she was 
better roasted, boyled, or carbonaded, I know not, but of 
such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of. This was 
that time, which still to this day we called the starving 
time ; it were too vile to say and scarce to be believed 
what we endured ; but the occasion was our owne, for 
want of providence, industrie and government, and not 
the barreness and defect of the country as is generally 
supposed." 

This playful allusion to powdered wife, and spec- 
ulation as to how she was best cooked, is the first 
instance we have been able to find of what is called 
" American humor," and Capt. Smith has the honor 
of being the first of the "American humorists" 
who have handled subjects of this kind with such 
pleasing gayety. 

It is to be noticed that this horrible story of can- 



192 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [i6og-io 

nibalism and wife-eating appears in Smith's " Gen- 
eral Historie" of 1624, without a word of contradic- 
tion or explanation, although the company as early 
as 1610 had taken pains to get at the facts, and 
Smith must have seen their " Declaration," which 
supposes the story was started by enemies of the 
colony. Some reported they saw it, some that 
Capt. Smith said so, and some that one Beadle, the 
lieutenant of Capt. Davis, did relate it. In "A 
True Declaration of the State of the Colonic in 
Virginia," published by the advice and direction of 
the Councill of Virginia, London, 1610, we read : 

" But to clear all doubt, Sir Thomas Yates thus relateth 
the tragedie : 

" There was one of the company who mortally hated 
his wife, and therefore secretly killed her, then cut her 
in pieces and hid her in divers parts of his house : when 
the woman was missing, the man suspected, his house 
searched, and parts of her mangled body were discovered, 
to excuse himself he said that his wife died, that he hid 
her to satisfie his hunger, and that he fed daily upon her. 
Upon this his house was again searched, when they found 
a good quantitie of meale, oatmeale, beanes and pease. 
Hee therefore was arraigned, confessed the murder, and 
was burned for his horrible villainy." 

This same " True Declaration," which singularly 
enough does not mention the name of Capt. Smith, 
who was so prominent an actor in Virginia during 
the period to which it relates, confirms all that 
Smith said as to the character of the colonists, es- 
pecially the new supply which landed in the eight 
vessels with Ratcliffe and Archer. " Every man 
overvalueing his own strength would be a com- 
mander; every man underprizing another's value, 
denied to be commanded." They were negligent 
and improvident. "Every man sharked for his 



i6o9-io] THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH. 1 93 

present bootie, but was altogether careless of suc- 
ceeding penurie." To idleness and faction was 
joined treason. About thirty " unhallowed crea- 
tures," in the winter of 1610, some five months be- 
fore the arrival of Capt. Gates, seized upon the ship 
Swallow., which had been prepared to trade with the 
Indians, and having obtained corn conspired to- 
gether and made a league to become pirates, dream- 
ing of mountains of gold and happy robberies. By 
this desertion they weakened the colony, which 
waited for their return with the provisions, and they 
made implacable enemies of the Indians by their 
violence. "These are that scum of men," which, 
after roving the seas and failing in their piracy, 
joined themselves to other pirates they found on the 
sea, or returned to England, bound by a mutual 
oath to discredit the Tand, and swore they were 
drawn away by famine. " These are they that roared 
at the tragicall historic of the man eating up his 
dead wife in Virginia " — " scandalous reports of a 
viperous generation." 

If further evidence were wanting, we have it in 
" The New Life of Virginia," published by author- 
ity of the Council, London, 1612. This is the second 
part of the " Nova Britannia," published in London, 
1609. Both are prefaced by an epistle to Sir Thomas 
Smith, one of the Council and treasurer, signed 
" R. I." Neither document contains any allusion to 
Capt. John Smith, or the part he played in Virginia. 
The " New Life of Virginia," after speaking of the 
tempest which drove Sir Thomas Gates on Bermuda, 
and the landing of the eight ships at Jamestown, 
says : " By which means the body of the plantation 
was now augmented with such numbers of irregular 
persons that it soon became as so many members 



194 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1609-10 

without a head, who as they were bad and evil 
affected for the most part before they went hence ; 
so now being landed and wanting restraint, they dis- 
played their condition in all kinds of looseness, those 
chief and wisest guides among them (whereof there 
were not many) did nothing but bitterly contend 
who should be first to command the rest, the com- 
mon sort, as is ever seen in such cases grew factious 
and disordered out of measure, in so much as the 
poor colony seemed (like the Colledge of English 
fugitives in Rome) as a hostile camp within itself ; 
in which distemper that envious man stept in, sow- 
ing plentiful tares in the hearts of all, which grew 
to such speedy confusion, that in few months ambi- 
tion, sloth and idleness had devoured the fruit of 
former labours, planting and sowing were clean 
given over, the houses decayed, the church fell to 
ruin, the store was spent, the cattle consumed, our 
people starved, and the Indians by wrongs and in- 
juries made our enemies. ... As for those wicked 
Impes that put themselves a shipboard, not knowing 
otherwise how to live in England ; or those ungra- 
tious sons that daily vexed their fathers hearts at 
home, and were therefore thrust upon the voyage, 
which either writing thence, or being returned back 
to cover their own leudnes, do fill mens ears with 
false reports of their miserable and perilous life in 
Virginia, let the imputation of misery be to their 
idleness, and the blood that was spilt upon their 
own heads that caused it." 

Sir Thomas Gates affirmed that after his first com- 
ing there he had seen some of them eat their fish 
raw rather than go a stone's cast to fetch wood and 
dress it. 

The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, 



i6o9-ioJ THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH. 1 95 

that it would have been extinct in ten days but for 
the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George 
Somers and Capt. Newport from the Bermudas. 
These gallant gentlemen, with one hundred and fifty 
souls, had been wrecked on the 'Bermudas in the 
Sea Venture in the preceding July. The terrors of 
the hurricane which dispersed the fleet, and this 
shipwreck, w^ere much dwelt upon by the writers of 
the time, and the Bermudas became a sort of en- 
chanted islands, or realms of the imagination. For 
three nights, and three days that were as black as 
the nights, the water-logged Sea Venture was scarcely 
kept afloat by bailing. We have a vivid picture of 
the stanch Somers sitting upon the poop of the 
ship, where he sat three days and three nights to- 
gether, without much meat and little or no sleep, 
conning the ship to keep her as upright as he could, 
until he happily descried land. The ship went 
ashore and was wedged into the rocks so fast that it 
held together till all were got ashore, and a good 
part of the goods and provisions, and the tackling 
and iron of the ship necessary for the building and 
furnishing of a new ship. 

This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous 
life on the island and final deliverance was due to 
the noble Somers, or Sommers, after whom the Ber- 
mudas were long called " Sommers Isles," which 
was gradually corrupted into "The Summer Isles." 
These islands of Bermuda had ever been accounted 
an enchanted •pile of rocks and a desert inhabita- 
tion for devils, which the navigator and mariner 
avoided as Scylla and Charybdis, or the devil him- 
self. But this shipwrecked company found it the 
most delightful country in the world ; the climate 
was enchanting, delicious fruits abounded, the 



196 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1609-10 

waters swarmed with fish, some of them big enough 
to nearly drag the fishers into the sea, while whales 
could be heard spouting and nosing about the rocks 
at night ; birds fat and tame and willing to be eaten 
covered all the bushes, and such droves of wild hogs 
covered the island that the slaughter of them for 
months seemed not to diminish their number. The 
friendly disposition of the birds seemed most to im- 
press the writer of the '^ True Declaration of Vir- 
ginia." He remembers how the ravens fed Elias in 
the brook Cedron ; " so God provided for our dis- 
consolate people in the midst of the sea by foules ; 
but with an admirable differance ; unto Elias the 
ravens brought meat, unto our men the foules 
brought (themselves) for meate : for when they 
whistled, or made any strange noyse, the foules 
would come and sit on their shoulders, they would 
suffer themselves to be taken and weighed by our 
men, who would make choice of the fairest and fat- 
test and let flie the leane and lightest, an accident 
[the chronicler exclaims], I take it [and everybody 
will take it], that cannot be paralleled by any Histo- 
ric, except when God sent abundance of Ouayles to 
feed his Israel in the barren wilderness." 

The rescued voyagers built themselves comforta- 
ble houses on the island, and dwelt there nine 
months in good health and plentifully fed. Sun- 
day was carefully observed, with sermons by Mr. 
Buck, the chaplain, an Oxford man, who was assist- 
ed in the services by Stephen Hopkins, one of the 
Puritans who were in the company. A marriage 
was celebrated between Thomas Powell, the cook 
of Sir George Somers, and Elizabeth Persons, the 
servant of Mrs. Horlow. Two children were also 
born, a boy who was christened Bermudas and a 



i6o9-io] THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH 1 97 

girl Bermuda. The girl was the child of Mr. John 
Rolfe and wife, the Rolfe who was shortly afterward 
to become famous by another marriage. In order 
that nothing should be wanting to the ordinary 
course of a civilized community, a murder was com- 
mitted. In the company were two Indians, Ma- 
chumps and Namontack, whose acquaintance we 
have before made, returning from England, whither 
they had been sent by Capt. Smith. Falling out 
about something, Machumps slew Namontack, and 
having made a hole to bury him, because it was too 
short he cut off his legs and laid them by him. This 
proceeding Machumps concealed till he was in 
Virginia. 

Somers and Gates were busy building two cedar 
ships, the Deliverer^ of eighty tons, and a pinnace 
called the Patience. When these were completed, 
the whole company, except two scamps who re- 
mained behind and had adventures enough for a 
three-volume novel, embarked, and on the i6th of 
May sailed for Jamestown, where they arrived on 
the 23d or 24th, and found the colony in the pitiable 
condition before described. A few famished settlers 
watched their coming. The church bell was rung 
in the shaky edifice, and the emaciated colonists 
assembled and heard the " zealous and sorrowful 
prayer" of Chaplain Buck. The commission of Sir 
Thomas Gates was read, and Mr. Percy retired from 
the governorship. 

The town was empty and unfurnished, and seemed 
like the ruin of some ancient fortification rather 
than the habitation of living men. The palisades 
were down; the ports open; the gates unhinged; 
the church ruined and unfrequented; the houses 
empty, torn to pieces or burnt; the people not able 



198 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610 

to step into the woods to gather fire-wood; and the 
Indians killing as fast without as famine and pesti- 
lence within. William Strachey was among the 
new-comers, and this is the story that he dispatched 
as Lord Delaware's report to England in July. On 
taking stock of provisions there was found only 
scant rations for sixteen days, and Gates and Somers 
determined to abandon the plantation, and, taking 
all on board their own ships, to make their way to 
Newfoundland, in the hope of falling in with Eng- 
lish vessels. Accordingly, on the 7th of June they 
got on board and dropped down the James. 

Meantime the news of the disasters to the colony, 
and the supposed loss of the Sea Venture^ had created 
a great excitement in London, and a panic and stop- 
page of subscriptions in the company. Lord Del- 
aware, a man of the highest reputation for courage 
and principle, determined to go himself, as Captain- 
General, to Virginia, in the hope of saving the for- 
tunes of the colony. With three ships and one 
hundred and fifty persons, mostly artificers, he em- 
barked on the ist of April, 1610, and reached the 
Chesapeake Bay on the 5th of June, just in time to 
meet the forlorn company of Gates and Somers 
putting out to sea. 

They turned back and ascended to Jamestown, 
when landing on Sunday, the loth, after a sermon 
by Mr. Buck, the commission of Lord Delaware was 
read, and Gates turned over his authority to the 
new Governor. He swore in as Council, Sir Thomas 
Gates, Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Ad- 
miral; Capt. George Percy; Sir Ferdinando Wen- 
man, Marshal; Capt. Christopher Newport, and 
William Strachey, Esq., Secretary and Recorder. 

On the 19th of June the brave old sailor, Sir 



i6io-ii] THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH. I99 

George Somers, volunteered to return to the Ber- 
mudas in his pinnace to procure hogs and other 
supplies for the colony. He was accompanied by 
Capt. Argall in the ship Discovery. After a rough 
voyage this noble old knight reached the Bermudas. 
But his strength was not equal to the memorable 
courage of his mind. At a place called Saint George 
he died, and his men, confounded at the death of 
him who was the life of them all, embalmed his 
body and set sail for England. Capt. Argall, after 
parting with his consort, without reaching the Ber- 
mudas, and much beating about the coast, was com- 
pelled to return to Jamestown. 

Capt. Gates was sent to England with dispatches 
and to procure more settlers and more supplies. 
Lord Delaware remained with the colony less than 
a year; his health failing, he went in pursuit of it, 
in March, 161 1, to the West Indies. In June of that 
year Gates sailed again, with six vessels, three hun- 
dred men, one hundred cows, besides other cattle, 
and provisions of all sorts. With him went his 
wife, who died on the passage, and his daughters. 
His expedition reached the James in August. The 
colony now numbered seven hundred persons. Gates 
seated himself at Hampton, a "delicate and neces- 
sary site for a city." 

Percy commanded at Jamestown, and Sir Thomas 
Dale went up the river to lay the foundations of 
Henrico. 

We have no occasion to follow further the for- 
tunes of the Virginia colony, except to relate the 
story of Pocahontas under her different names of 
Amonate, Matoaka, Mrs. Rolfe, and Lady Rebecca. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

THE simple story of the life of Pocahontas is 
sufficiently romantic without the embellish- 
ments which have been wrought on it either by the 
vanity of Capt. Smith or the natural pride of the de- 
scendants of this dusky princess who have been en- 
nobled by the smallest rivulet of her red blood. 

That she was a child of remarkable intelligence, 
and that she early showed a tender regard for the 
whites and rendered them willing and unwilling 
service, is the concurrent evidence of all contem- 
porary testimony. That as a child she was well- 
favored, sprightly, and prepossessing above all her 
copper-colored companions, we can believe, and that 
as a woman her manners were attractive. If the 
portrait taken of her in London — the best engrav- 
ing of which is by Simon de Passe — in 1616, when 
she is said to have been twenty-one years old, does 
her justice, she had marked Indian features. 

The first mention of her is in " The True Rela- 
tion," written by Capt. Smith in Virginia in 1608. 
In this narrative, as our readers have seen, she is 
not referred to until after Smith's return from the 
captivity in which Powhatan used him " with all 
the kindness he could devise." Her name first ap- 
pears, toward the close of the relation, in the fol- 
lowing sentence: 

" Powhatan understanding we detained certain salvages, 
sent his daughter, a child of tenne yeares old, which not 



THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 201 

only for feature, countenance, and proportion, much ex- 
ceedeth any of the rest of his people, but for wit and 
spirit the only nonpareil of his country : this hee sent by 
his most trusty messenger, called Rawhunt, as much ex- 
ceeding in deformitie of person, but of a subtill wit and 
crafty understanding, he with a long circumstance told 
mee how well Powhatan loved and respected mee, and in 
that I should not doubt any way of his kindness, he had 
sent his child, which he most esteemed, to see mee, a 
Deere, and bread, besides for a present : desiring mee 
that the Boy [Thomas Savage, the boy given by Newport 
to Powhatan] might come again, which he loved ex- 
ceedingly, his little Daughter he had taught this lesson 
also : not taking notice at all of the Indians that had been 
prisoners three dales, till that morning that she saw their 
fathers and friends come quietly, and in good termes to 
entreate their libertie. 

"In the afternoon they [the friends of the prisoners] 
being gone, we guarded them [the prisoners] as before to 
the church, and after prayer, gave them to Pocahuntas the 
King's Daughter, in regard of her father's kindness in 
sending her : after having well fed them, as all the time of 
their imprisonment, we gave them their bows, arrowes, or 
what else they had, and with much content, sent them 
packing : Pocahuntas, also we requited with such trifles as 
contented her, to tel that we had used the Paspaheyans 
very kindly in so releasing them." 

The next allusion to her is in the fourth chapter 
of the narratives which are appended to the " IVIap 
of Virginia," etc. This was 'sent home by Smith, 
with a description of Virginia, in the late autumn 
of 1608. It was published at Oxford in 161 2, from 
two to three years after Smith's return to England. 
The appendix contains the narratives of several 
of Smith's companions in Virginia, edited by Dr. 
Symonds and overlooked by Smith. In one of 
these is a brief reference to the above-quoted inci- 



202 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1608-10 

dent. This Oxford tract, it is scarcely necessary 
to repeat, contains no reference to the saving of 
Smith's life by Pocahontas from the clubs of Pow- 
hatan. 

The next published mention of Pocahontas, in 
point of time, is in Chapter X. and the last of the 
appendix to the " Map of Virginia," and is Smith's 
denial, already quoted, of his intention to marry 
Pocahontas. In this passage he speaks of her as 
''at most not past 13 or 14 years of age." If 
she was thirteen or fourteen in 1609, when Smith 
left Virginia, she must have been more than ten 
when he wrote his " True Relation," composed in 
the winter of 1608, which in all probability was 
carried to England by Capt. Nelson, who left James- 
town June 2. 

The next contemporary authority to be consulted 
in regard to Pocahontas is William Strachey, who, 
as we have seen, went with the expedition of Gates 
and Somers, was shipwrecked on the Bermudas, and 
reached Jamestown May 23 or 24, 1610, and was 
made Secretary and Recorder of the colony under 
Lord Delaware. Of the origin and life of Strachey, 
who was a person of importance in Virginia, little 
is known. The better impression is that he was the 
William Strachey of Saffron Walden, who was mar- 
ried in 1588 and was living in 1620, and that it was 
his grandson of the same name who was subse- 
quently connected with the Virginia colony. He 
was, judged by his writings, a man of considerable 
education, a good deal of a pedant, and shared the 
credulity and fondness for embellishment of the 
writers of his time. His connection with Lord Del- 
aware, and his part in framing the code of laws in 
Virginia, which may be inferred from the fact that 



i6o8-io] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 203 

he first published them, show that he was a trusted 
and capable man. 

William Strachey left behind him a manuscript 
entitled " The Historic of Travaile into Virginia 
Britanica, &c., gathered and observed as well by 
those who went first thither, as collected by William 
Strachey, gent., three years thither, em.ployed as 
Secretaire of State." How long he remained in 
Virginia is uncertain, but it could not have been 
"three years," though he may have been continued 
Secretary for that period, for he was in London in 
16 1 2, in which year he published there the laws of 
Virginia which had been established by Sir Thomas 
Gates May 24, 16 10, approved by Lord Delaware 
June 10, 1 6 10, and enlarged by Sir Thomas Dale 
June 22, 1611.* 

The " Travaile" was first published by the Hak- 

* This code of laws, with its penalty of whipping and death 
for what are held now to be venial offenses, gives it a high 
place among the Black Codes, One clause will suffice: 

"Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first 
towling of the Bell shall upon the working dales repaire unto 
the church, to hear divine service upon pain of losing his or her 
allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipt, and 
for the third to be condemned to the Gallies for six months. 
Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate the Sabbath 
by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but 
duly sanctifie and observe the same, both himselfe and his 
familie, by preparing themselves at'home with private prayer, 
that they may be the better fitted for the publique, according to 
the commandments of God, and the orders of our church, as 
also every man and woman shall repaire in the morning to the 
divine service, and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, 
and in the afternoon to divine service, and Catechism upon 
paine for the first fault to lose their provision, and allowance 
for the whole week following, for the second to lose the said 
allowance and also to be whipt, and for the third to suffer 
death." 



204 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610-12 

luyt Society in 1849. When and where it was writ- 
ten, and whether it was all composed at one time, 
are matters much in dispute. The first book, descrip- 
tive of Virginia and its people, is complete; the 
second book, a narration of discoveries in America, 
is unfinished. Only the first book concerns us. 
That Strachey made notes in Virginia may be as- 
sumed, but the book was no doubt written after his 
return to England. 

Was it written before or after the publication of 
Smith's "Map and Description" at Oxford in 1612 ? 
The question is important, because Smith's " De- 
scription" and Strachey's " Travaile" are page after 
page literally the same. One was taken from the 
other. Commonly at that time manuscripts seem 
to have been passed around and much read before 
they were published. Purchas acknowledges that 
he had unpublished manuscripts of Smith when he 
compiled his narrative. Did Smith see Strache3^'s 
manuscript before he published his Oxford tract, or 
did Strachey enlarge his own notes from Smith's 
description ? It has been usually assumed that 
Strachey cribbed from Smith without acknowledg- 
ment. If it were a question to be settled by the 
internal evidence of the two accounts, I should in- 
cline to think that Smith condensed his description 
from Strachey; but the dates incline the balance in 
Smith's favor. 

Strachey in his "Travaile" refers sometimes to 
Smith, and always with respect. It will be noted 
that Smith's " Map" was engraved and published 
before the " Description" in the Oxford tract. Pur- 
chas had it, for he says, in writing of Virginia for 
his "Pilgrimage" (which was published m 1613): 
" Concerning the latter [Virginia], Capt. John Smith, 



i6i(>-i2] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 20$ 

partly by word of mouth, partly by his mappe 
thereof in print, and more fully by a Manuscript 
which he courteously communicated to mee, hath 
acquainted me with that whereof himselfe with 
great perill and paine, had been the discoverer." 
Strachey in his " Travaile" alludes to it, and pays a 
tribute to Smith in the following: " Their severall 
habitations are more plainly described by the an- 
nexed mappe, set forth by Capt. Smith, of whose 
paines taken herein I leave to the censure of the 
reader to judge. Sure I am there will not return 
from thence in hast, any one who hath been more 
industrious, or who hath had (Capt. Geo. Percie ex- 
cepted) greater experience amongst them, however 
misconstruction may traduce here at home, where 
is not easily seen the mixed sufferances, both of 
body and mynd, which is there daylie, and with no 
few hazards and hearty grief es undergon." 

There are two copies of the Strachey manuscript. 
The one used by the Hakluyt Society is dedicated 
to Sir Francis Bacon, with the title of " Lord High 
Chancellor," and Bacon had not that title conferred 
on him till after 1618. But the copy among the 
Ashmolean manuscripts at Oxford is dedicated to 
Sir Allen Apsley, with the title of " Purveyor to His 
Majestie's Navie Royall;" and as Sir Allen was 
made "Lieutenant of the Tower" in 1616, it is be- 
lieved that the manuscript must have been written 
before that date, since the author would not have 
omitted the more important of the two titles in his 
dedication. 

Strachey's prefatory letter to the Council, pre- 
fixed to his "Laws" (16 12), is dated "From my 
lodging in the Black Friars. At your best pleas- 
ures, either to return unto the colony, or pray for 



206 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [1610-12 

the success of it heere." In this letter he speaks of 
his experience in the Bermudas and Virginia: "The 
full storie of both in due time [I] shall consecrate 
unto your views Howbit since many impedi- 
ments, as yet must detaine such my observations in 
the shadow of darknesse, untill I shall be able to 
deliver them perfect unto your judgments," etc. 

This is not, as has been assumed, a statement that 
the observations were not written then, only that 
they were not " perfect;" in fact, they were detained 
in the "shadow of darknesse" till the year 1849. 
Our own inference is, from all the circumstances, 
that Strachey began his manuscript in Virginia or 
shortly after his return, and added to it and cor- 
rected it from time to time up to 1616. 

We are now in a position to consider Strachey's 
allusions to Pocahontas. The first occurs in his 
description of the apparel of Indian women: 

"The better sort of women cover themselves (for the 
most part) all over with skin mantells, finely drest, shag- 
ged and fringed at the skyrt, carved and coloured with 
some pretty work, or the proportion of beasts, fowle, tor- 
tayses, or other such like imagry, as shall best please or 
expresse the fancy of the wearer; their younger women 
goe not shadowed amongst their owne companie, until 
they be nigh eleaven or twelve returnes of the leafe old 
(for soe they accompt and bring about the yeare, calling 
the fall of the leaf tagnitock) ; nor are they much ashamed 
thereof, and therefore would the before remembered Poca- 
hontas, a well featured, but wanton yong girle, Powha- 
tan's daughter, sometymes resorting to our fort, of the 
age then of eleven or twelve yeares, get the boyes forth 
with her into the markett place, and make them wheele, 
falling on their hands, turning up their heeles upwards, 
whome she would followe and wheele so herself, naked as 
she was, all the fort over ; but being once twelve yeares, 



I6IO-I2] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 2QJ 

they put on a kind of semecinctum lethern apron (as do our 
artificers or handycrafts men) before their bellies, and are 
very shamefac't to be seene bare. We have seene some use 
mantells made both of Turkey feathers, and other fowle, 
so prettily wrought and woven with threeds, that nothing 
could be discerned but the feathers, which were exceed- 
ingly warme and very handsome." 

Strachey did not see Pocahontas. She did not 
resort to the camp after the departure of Smith in 
September, 1609, until she was kidnapped by Gov. 
Dale in April, 16 13. He repeats what he heard of 
her. The time mentioned by him of her resorting 
to the fort, " of the age then of eleven or twelve 
yeares," must have been the time referred to by 
Smith when he might have married her, namely, 
in 1608-9, when he calls her " not past 13 or 14 
years of age." The description of her as a '* yong 
girle" tumbling about the fort, " naked as she was," 
would seem to preclude the idea that she was mar- 
ried at that time. 

The use of the word " wanton" is not necessarily 
disparaging, for " wanton" in that age was fre- 
quently synonymous with *' playful" and " sport- 
ive;" but it is singular that she should be spoken of 
as "well featured, but wanton." Strachey, however, 
gives in another place what is no doubt the real sig- 
nificance of the Indian name "Pocahontas." He 
says : 

" Both men, women, and children have their severall 
names ; at first according to the severall humor of their 
parents ; and for the men children, at first, when they are 
young, their mothers give them a name, calling them by 
some affectionate title, or perhaps observing their prom- 
ising inclination give it accordingly; and so the great King 
Powhatan called a young daughter of his, whom he loved 



208 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610-12 

well, Pocahontas, which may signify a little wanton ; how- 
beyt she was rightly called Amonata at more ripe years." 

The Indian girls married very young. The polyg- 
amous Powhatan had a large number of wives, but 
of all his women, his favorites were a dozen " for 
the most part very young women," the names 
of whom Strachey obtained from one Kemps, an 
Indian a good deal about camp, whom Smith 
certifies was a great villain. Strachey gives a list 
of the names of twelve of them, at the head of which 
is Winganuske. This list was no doubt written 
down by the author in Virginia, and it is followed 
by a sentence, quoted below, giving also the num- 
ber of Powhatan's children. The " great darling" 
in this list was Winganuske, a sister of Machumps, 
who, according to Smith, murdered his comrade in 
the Bermudas. Strachey writes: 

" He [Powhatan] was reported by the said Kemps, as 
also by the Indian Machumps, who was sometyme in Eng- 
land, and comes to and fro amongst us as he dares, and as 
Powhatan gives him leave, for it is not otherwise safe for 
him, no more than it was for one Amarice, who had his 
braynes knockt out for selling but a baskett of corne, and 
lying in the English fort two or three days without Pow- 
hatan's leave ; I say they often reported unto us that 
Powhatan had then lyving twenty sonnes and ten daugh- 
ters, besyde a young one by Winganuske, Machumps his 
sister, and a great darling of the King's ; and besides, 
younge Pocohunta, a daughter of his, using sometyme to 
our fort in tymes past, nowe married to a private Captaine, 
called Kocoum, some two years since." 

This passage is a great puzzle. Does Strachey 
intend to say that Pocahontas was married to an In- 
dian named Kocoum? She might have been during 
the time after Smith's departure in 1609, and her 



16IQ-I2] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 209 

kidnapping in 1613, when she was of marriageable 
age. We shall see hereafter that Powhatan, in 16 14, 
said he had sold another favorite daughter of his, 
whom Sir Thomas Dale desired, and who was not 
twelve years of age, to be wife to a great chief. 
The term "private Captain" might perhaps be ap- 
plied to an Indian chief. Smith, in his "General 
Historic," says the Indians have "but few occasions 
to use any officers more than one commander, which 
commonly they call Werowance^ or Cmicoroicse , which 
is Captaine." It is probably not possible, with the 
best intentions, to twist Kocoum into Caucorouse, 
or to suppose that Strachey intended to say that a 
private captain was called in Indian a Kocoum. 
Werowance and Caucorouse are not synonymous 
terms. Werowance means "chief," and Caucorouse 
means "talker" or "orator," and is the original of 
our word "caucus." 

Either Strachey was uninformed, or Pocahontas 
was married to an Indian — a not violent presump- 
tion considering her age and the fact that war be- 
tween Powhatan and the whites for some time had 
cut off intercourse between them — or Strachey re- 
ferred to her marriage with Rolfe, whom he calls 
by mistake Kocoum. If this is to be accepted, then 
this paragraph must have been written in England 
in 16 16, and have referred to the marriage to Rolfe 
"some two years since," in 1614. 

That Pocahontas was a gentle-hearted and pleas- 
ing girl, and, through her acquaintance with Smith, 
friendly to the whites, there is no doubt ; that she 
was not different in her habits and mode of life 
from other Indian girls, before the time of her kid- 
napping, there is every reason to suppose. It was 
the English who magnified the imperialism of her 



2IO CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610-13 

father, and exaggerated her own station as Princess. 
She certainly put on no airs of royalty when she 
was "cart-wheeling" about the fort. Nor does this 
detract anything from the native dignity of the 
mature, and converted, and partially civilized 
woman. 

We should expect there would be the discrepan- 
cies which have been noticed in the estimates of her 
age. Powhatan is not said to have kept a private 
secretary to register births in his family. If Poca- 
hontas gave her age correctly, as it appears upon 
her London portrait in 1616, aged twenty-one, she 
must have been eighteen years of age when she was 
captured in 16 13. This would make her about 
twelve at the time of Smith's captivity in 1607-8. 
There is certainly room for difference of opinion as 
to whether so precocious a woman, as her intelli- 
gent apprehension of affairs shows her to have been, 
should have remained unmarried till the age of 
eighteen. In marrying at least as early as that she 
would have followed the custom of her tribe. It is 
possible that her intercourse with the whites had 
raised her above such an alliance as would be 
offered her at the court of Werowocomoco. 

We are without any record of the life of Poca- 
hontas for some years. The occasional mentions of 
her name in the " General Historic " are so evident- 
ly interpolated at a late date, that they do not aid us. 
When and where she took the name of Matoaka, 
which appears upon her London portrait, we are 
not told, nor when she was called Amonata, as 
Strachey says she was "at more ripe yeares." How 
she was occupied from the departure of Smith to 
her abduction, we can only guess. To follow her 
authentic history we must take up the account of 



I6IO-I3] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 211 

Capt. Argall and of Ralph Hamor, Jr., secretary of 
the colony under Gov. Dale. 

Capt. Argall, who seems to have been as bold as 
he was unscrupulous in the execution of any plan 
intrusted to him, arrived in Virginia in September, 
1612, and early in the spring of 1613 he was sent on 
an expedition up the Patowomek to trade for corn 
and to effect a capture that would bring Powhatan 
to terms. The Emperor, from being a friend, had 
become the most implacable enemy of the English. 
Capt. Argall says : " I was told by certain Indians, 
my friends, that the great Powhatan's daughter Po- 
kahuntis was with the great King Potowomek, 
whither I presently repaired, resolved to possess 
myself of her by any stratagem that I could use, for 
the ransoming of so many Englishmen as were 
prisoners with Powhatan, as also to get such armes 
and tooles as he and other Indians had got by mur- 
ther and stealing some others of our nation, with 
some quantity of corn for the colonies relief." 

By the aid of Japazeus, King of Pasptancy, an old 
acquaintance and friend of Argall's, and the conniv- 
ance of the King of Potowomek, Pocahontas was 
enticed on board Argall's ship and secured. Word 
was sent to Powhatan of the capture and the terms 
on which his daughter would be released; namely, 
the return of the white men he held in slavery, the 
tools and arms he had gotten and stolen, and a great 
quantity of corn. Powhatan, '' much grieved," re- 
plied that if Argall would use his daughter well, 
and bring the ship into his river and release her, 
he would accede to all his demands. Therefore, on 
the 13th of April, Argall repaired to Gov. Gates at 
Jamestown, and delivered his prisoner, and a few 
days after the King sent home some of the white 



212 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [1613 

captives, three pieces, one broad-axe, a long whip- 
saw, and a canoe of corn. Pocahontas, however, 
was kept at Jamestown, 

Why Pocahontas had left Werowocomoco and 
gone to stay with Patowomek we can only conjec- 
ture. It is possible that Powhatan suspected her 
friendliness to the whites, and was weary of her 
importunity, and it may be that she wanted to es- 
cape the sight of continual fighting, ambushes, and 
murders. More likely she was only making a com- 
mon friendly visit, though Hamor says she went to 
trade at an Indian fair. 

The story of her capture is enlarged and more 
minutely related by Ralph Hamor, Jr., who was one 
of the colony shipwrecked on the Bermudas in 
1609, and returned to England in 1614, where he 
published (London, 1615) ''A True Discourse of 
Virginia, and the Success of the Affairs there till the 
i8th of June, 1614." Hamor was the son of a mer- 
chant tailor in London who was a member of the 
Virginia company. Hamor writes : 

" It chanced Powhatan's delight and darling, his daugh- 
ter Pocahuntas (whose fame has even been spread in 
England by the title of Noiparella of Virgmid) in her 
princely progresse if I may so terme it, tooke some pleas- 
ure (in the absence of Captaine Argall) to be among her 
friends at Pataomecke (as it seemeth by the relation I 
had), implored thither as shopkeeper to a Fare, to ex- 
change some of her father's commodities for theirs, where 
residing some three months or longer, it fortuned upon 
occasion either of promise or profit, Captaine Argall to 
arrive there, whom Pocahuntas, desirous to renew her 
familiaritie with the English, and delighting to see them 
as unknown, fearefull perhaps to be surprised, would 
gladly visit as she did, of whom no sooner had Captaine 
Argall intelligence, but he delt with an old friend lapazeus, 



i6i3j THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 213 

how and by what meanes he might procure her caption, 
assuring him that now or never, was the time to pleasure 
him, if he intended indeede that love which he had made 
profession of, that in ransome of hir he might redeeme 
some of our English men and armes, now in the posses- 
sion of her father, promising to use her withall faire and 
gentle entreaty ; lapazeus well assured that his brother, as 
he promised, would use her courteously, promised his best 
endeavors and service to accomplish his desire, and thus 
wrought it, making his wife an instrument (which sex 
have ever been most powerful in beguiling inticements) 
to effect his plot which hee had thus laid, he agreed that 
himself, his wife and Pocahuntas, would accompanie his 
brother to the water side, whither come, his wife should 
faine a great and longing desire to goe aboorde, and see 
the shippe, which being there three or four times before 
she had never scene, and should be earnest with her hus- 
band to permit her: he seemed angry with her, making as 
he pretended so unnecessary request, especially being 
without the company of women, which denial she taking 
unkindly, must faine to weepe (as who knows not that 
women can command teares) whereupon her husband seem- 
ing to pitty those counterfeit teares, gave her leave to goe 
aboord, so that it would pleese Pocahuntas to accompany 
her; now was the greatest labour to win her, guilty perhaps 
of her father's wrongs, though not knowne as she supposed, 
to goe with her, yet by her earnest persuasions, she as- 
sented : so forthwith aboord they went, the best cheere 
that could be made was seasonably provided, to supper 
they went, merry on all hands, especially lapazeus and his 
wife, who to expres their joy would ere be treading upon 
Captaine Argall's foot, as who should say tis don, she is 
your own. Supper ended Pocahuntas was lodged in the 
gunner's roome, but lapazeus and his wife desired to have 
some conference with their brother, which was onely to 
acquaint him by what stratagem they had betraied his 
prisoner as I have already related : after which discourse 
to sleepe they went, Pocahuntas nothing mistrusting this 
policy, who nevertheless being most possessed with feere, 



214 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1613 

and desire of returne, was first up, and hastened lapazeus 
to be gon. Capt. Argall having secretly well rewarded 
him, with a small Copper kittle, and some other les valua- 
ble toies so highly by him esteemed, that doubtlesse he 
would have betraied his own father for them, permitted 
both him and his wife to returne, but told him that for 
divers considerations, as for that his father had then eigh 
[8J of our Englishe men, many swords, peeces, and other 
tooles, which he had at severall times by trecherous mur- 
dering our men, taken from them which though of no use 
to him, he would not redeliver, he would reserve Poca- 
hontas, whereat she began to be exceeding pensive, and 
discontented, yet ignorant of the dealing of Japazeus who 
in outward appearance was no les discontented that he 
should be the meanes of her captivity, much adoe there 
was to pursuade her to be patient, which with extraordi- 
nary curteous usage, by little and little was wrought in 
her, and so to Jamestowne she was brought." 

Smith, who condenses this account in his " Gen- 
eral Historie," expresses his contempt of this Indian 
treachery by saying: " The old Jew and his wife be- 
gan to howle and crie as fast as Pocahuntas." It 
will be noted that the account of the visit (appar- 
ently alone) of Pocahontas and her capture is strong 
evidence that she was not at this time married to 
" Kocoum" or anybody else. 

Word was dispatched to Powhatan of his daugh- 
ter's duress, with a demand made for the restitution 
of goods; but although this savage is represented as 
dearly loving Pocahontas, his " delight and darling," 
it was, according to Hamor, three months before 
they heard anything from him. His anxiety about 
his daughter could not have been intense. He re- 
tained a part of his plunder, and a message was 
sent to him that Pocahontas would be kept till he 
restored all the arms. 



i6i4] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 21$ 

This answer pleased Powhatan so little that they 
heard nothing from him till the following March. 
Then Sir Thomas Dale and Capt. Argall, with sev- 
eral vessels and one hundred and fifty men, went up 
to Powhatan's chief seat, taking his daughter with 
them, offering the Indians a chance to fight for her 
or to take her in peace on surrender of the stolen 
goods. The Indians received this w4th bravado and 
flights of arrows, reminding them of the fate of 
Capt. Ratcliffe. The whites landed, killed some 
Indians, burnt forty houses, pillaged the village, and 
went on up the river and came to anchor in front of 
Matchcot, the Emperor's chief town. Here wxre 
assembled four hundred armed men, with bows and 
arrows, who dared them to come ashore. Ashore they 
went, and a palaver was held. The Indians wanted 
a day to consult their King, after which they would 
fight, if nothing but blood would satisfy the whites. 

Two of Powhatan's sons who were present ex- 
pressed a desire to see their sister, who had been 
taken on shore. When they had sight of her, and 
saw how well she was cared for, they greatly re- 
joiced, and promised to persuade their father to 
redeem her and conclude a lasting peace. The two 
brothers were taken on board ship, and Master John 
Rolfe and Master Sparkes were sent to negotiate 
with the King. Powhatan did not show himself, 
but his brother Apachamo, his successor, promised 
to use his best efforts to bring about a peace, and 
the expedition returned to Jamestown. 

"Long before this time," Hamor relates, "a gen- 
tleman of approved behaviour and honest carriage, 
Master John Rolfe, had been in love with Pocahun- 
tas and she with him, which thing at the instant that 
we were in parlee with them, myselfe made known 



2l6 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1614 

to Sir Thomas Dale, by a letter from him [Rolfe] 
whereby he entreated his advice and furtherance to 
his love, if so it seemed fit to him for the good of 
the Plantation, and Pocahuntas herself acquainted 
her brethren therewith." Gov. Dale approved this, 
and consequently was willing to retire without other 
conditions. " The bruite of this pretended mariage 
[Hamor continues] came soon to Powhatan's knowl- 
edge, a thing acceptable to him, as appeared by his 
sudden consent thereunto, who some ten dales after 
sent an old uncle of hirs, named Opachisco, to give 
her as his deputy in the church, and two of his 
sonnes to see the mariage solemnized which was 
accordingly done about the fifth of April [16 14], and 
ever since we have had friendly commerce and trade, 
not only with Powhatan himself, but also with his 
subjects round about us; so as now I see no reason 
why the collonie should not thrive a pace." 

This marriage was justly celebrated as the means 
and beginning of a firm peace which long con- 
tinued, so that Pocahontas was again entitled to 
the grateful remembrance of the Virginia settlers. 
Already, in 1612, a plan had been mooted in Vir- 
ginia of marrying the English with the natives, and 
of obtaining the recognition of Powhatan and those 
allied to him as members of a fifth kingdom, with 
certain privileges. Cunega, the Spanish ambassa- 
dor at London, on September 22, 161 2, writes: "Al- 
though some suppose the plantation to decrease, he 
is credibly informed that there is a determination to 
marry some of the people that go over to Virginia; 
forty or fifty are already so married, and English 
women intermingle and are received kindly by the 
natives. A zealous minister hath been wounded for 
reprehending it." 



i6i4] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 2l7 

Mr. John Rolfe was a man of industry, and ap- 
parently devoted to the welfare of the colony. He 
probably brought with him in 1610 his wife, who 
gave birth to his daughter Bermuda, born on the 
Somers Islands at the time of the shipwreck. We 
find no notice of her death. Hamor gives him the 
distinction of being the first in the colony to try, in 
1612, the planting and raising of tobacco. ''No 
man [he adds] hath labored to his power, by good 
example there and worthy encouragement into Eng- 
land by his letters, than he hath done, witness his 
marriage with Powhatan's daughter, one of rude 
education, manners barbarous and cursed genera- 
tion, meerely for the good and honor of the planta- 
tion: and least any man should conceive that some 
sinister respects allured him hereunto, I have made 
bold, contrary to his knowledge, in the end of my 
treatise to insert the true coppie of his letter written 
to Sir Thomas Dale." 

The letter is a long, labored, and curious docu- 
ment, and comes nearer to a theological treatise 
than any love-letter we have on record. It reeks 
with unction. Why Rolfe did not speak to Dale, 
whom he saw every day, instead of inflicting upon 
him this painful document, in which the flutterings 
of a too susceptible widower's heart are hidden 
under a great resolve of self-sacrifice, is not plain. 

The letter protests in a tedious preamble that the 
writer is moved entirely by the Spirit of God, and 
continues: 

" Let therefore this my well advised protestation, which 
here I make between God and my own conscience, be a 
sufficient witness, at the dreadful day of judgment (when 
the secrets of all men's hearts shall be opened) to con- 
demne me herein, if my chiefest interest and purpose be 



2 1 8 CAP 7A IN JOHN SMITH. [1614 

not to strive with all my power of body and mind, in the 
undertaking of so weighty a matter, no way led (so far 
forth as man's weakness may permit) with the unbridled 
desire of carnall affection ; but for the good of this planta- 
tion, for the honour of our countrie, for the glory of God, 
for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true 
knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, an unbelieving crea- 
ture, namely Pokahuntas. To whom my heartie and best 
thoughts are, and have a long time bin so entangled, and 
inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even 
awearied to unwinde myself thereout." 

Master Rolfe goes on to describe the mighty war 
in his meditations on this subject, in which he had 
set before his eyes the frailty of mankind and his 
proneness to evil and wicked thoughts. He is aware 
of God's displeasure against the sons of Levi and 
Israel for marrying strange wives, and this has 
caused him to look about warily and with good 
circumspection *' into the grounds and principall 
agitations which should thus provoke me to be in 
love with one, whose education hath bin rude, her 
manners barbarous, her generation accursed, and so 
discrepant in all nurtriture from myselfe, that often- 
times with feare and trembling, I have ended my 
private controversie with this: surely these are 
wicked instigations, fetched by him who seeketh 
and delighteth in man's distruction; and 30 with 
fervent prayers to be ever preserved from such dia- 
bolical assaults (as I looke those to be) I have taken 
some rest." 

The good man was desperately in love and want- 
ed to marry the Indian, and consequently he got no 
peace; and still being tormented with her im.age, 
whether she was absent or present, he set out to 
produce an ingenious reason (to show the world) 
for marrying her. He continues: 



I6i4l THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 219 

" Thus when I thought I had obtained my peace and 
quietnesse, beholde another, but more gracious tentation 
hath made breaches into my holiest and strongest medita- 
tions ; with which I have been put to a new triall, in a 
straighter manner than the former ; for besides the weary 
passions and sufferings which I have dailey, hourely, yea 
and in my sleepe indured, even awaking me to astonish- 
ment, taxing me with remissnesse, and carelessnesse, re- 
fusing and neglecting to perform the duteie of a good 
Christian, pulling me by the eare, and crying : Why dost 
thou not indeavor to make her a Christian ? And these 
have happened to my greater wonder, even when she 
hath been furthest seperated from me, which in common 
reason (were it not an undoubted work of God) might 
breede forgetfulnesse of a far more worthie creature." 

He accurately describes the symptoms and ap- 
pears to understand the remedy, but he is after a 
large-sized motive: 

" Besides, I say the holy Spirit of God hath often de- 
manded of me, why I was created ? If not for transitory 
pleasures and worldly vanities, but to labour in the Lord's 
vineyard, there to sow and plant, to nourish and increase 
the fruites thereof, daily adding with the good husband in 
the gospell, somewhat to the tallent, that in the ends the 
fruites may be reaped, to the comfort of the labourer in 

this life, and his salvation in the world to come 

Likewise, adding hereunto her great appearance of love to 
me, her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowl- 
edge of God, her capablenesse of understanding, her apt- 
ness and willingness to receive anie good impression, and 
also the spirituall, besides her owne incitements stirring 
me up hereunto." 

The " incitements" gave him courage, so that he 
exclaims: " Shall I be of so untoward a disposition, 
as to refuse to lead the blind into the right way ? 
Shall I be so unnatural, as not to give bread to the 
hungrie, or uncharitable, as not to cover the naked ?" 



220 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1614 

It wasn't to be thought of, such wickedness; and 
so Master Rolfe screwed up his courage to marry 
the glorious Princess, from whom thousands of 
people were afterwards so anxious to be descended. 
But he made the sacrifice for the glory of the 
country, the benefit of the plantation, and the con- 
version of the unregenerate, and other and lower 
motive he vigorously repels: "Now, if the vulgar 
sort, who square all men's actions by the base rule 
of their own filthinesse, shall tax or taunt mee in 
this my godly labour: let them know it is not hun- 
gry appetite, to gorge myself e with incontinency; 
sure (if I would and were so sensually inclined) I 
might satisfy such desire, though not without a 
seared conscience, yet with Christians more pleas- 
ing to the eie, and less fearefull in the offense 
unlawfully committed. Nor am I in so desperate 
an estate, that I regard not what becometh of me; 
nor am I out of hope but one day to see my country, 
nor so void of friends, nor mean in birth, but there to 

obtain a mach to my great content But shall 

it please God thus to dispose of me (which I 
earnestly desire to fulfill my ends before set down) 
I will heartily accept of it as a godly taxe appointed 
me, and I will never cease (God assisting me) untill 
I have accomplished, and brought to perfection so 
holy a worke, in which I will daily pray God to 
bless me, to mine and her eternal happiness." 

It is to be hoped that if sanctimonious John wrote 
any love-letters to Amonata they had less cant in 
them than this. But it was pleasing to Sir Thomas 
Dale, who was a man to appreciate the high motives 
of Mr. Rolfe. In a letter which he dispatched from 
Jamestown, June 18, 1614, to a reverend friend in 
London, he describes the expedition when Poca- 



I6l4] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 221 

hontas was carried up the river, and adds the infor- 
mation that when she went on shore, '' she would 
not talk to any of them, scarcely to them of the best 
sort, and to them only, that if her father had loved 
her, he would not value her less than old swords, 
pieces, or axes; wherefore she would still dwell with 
the Englishmen who loved her." 

" Powhatan's daughter [the letter continues] I 
caused to be carefully instructed in Christian Re- 
ligion, who after she had made some good progress 
therein, renounced publically her countrey Idolatry, 
openly confessed her Christian faith, was, as she 
desired, baptized, and is since married to an English 
Gentleman of good understanding (as by his letter 
unto me, containing the reasons for his marriage 
of her you may perceive), an other knot to bind 
this peace the stronger. Her father and friends 
gave approbation to it, and her uncle gave her to 
him in the church; she lives civilly and lovingly 
with him, and I trust will increase in goodness, as 
the knowledge of God increaseth in her. She will 
goe into England with me, and were it but the 
gayning of this one soule, I will think my time, 
toile, and present stay well spent." 

Hamor also appends to his narration a short 
letter, of the same date with the above, from the 
minister Alexander Whittaker, the genuineness of 
which is questioned. In speaking of the good deeds 
of Sir Thomas Dale it says: "But that which is 
best, one Pocahuntas or Matoa, the daughter of 
Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreet 
English Gentleman — Master Rolfe, and that after 
she had openly renounced her countrey Idolatry, 
and confessed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was 
baptized, which thing Sir Thomas Dale had 



222 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1614 

laboured a long time to ground her in." If, as 
this proclaims, she was married after her conver- 
sion, then Rolfe's tender conscience must have 
given him another twist for wedding her, when the 
reason for marrying her (her conversion) had ceased 
with her baptism. His marriage, according to this, 
was a pure work of supererogation. It took place 
about the fifth of April, 1614. It is not known who 
performed the ceremony. 

How Pocahontas passed her time in Jamestown 
during the period of her detention, we are not told. 
Conjectures are made that she was an inmate of the 
house of Sir Thomas Dale, or of that of the Rev. 
Mr. Whittaker, both of whom labored zealously to 
enlighten her mind on religious subjects. She must 
also have been learning English and civilized ways, 
for it is sure that she spoke our language very well 
when she went to London. Mr. John Rolfe was 
also laboring for her conversion, and we may sup- 
pose that with all these ministrations, mingled with 
her love of Mr. Rolfe, which that ingenuous wid- 
ower had discovered, and her desire to convert him 
into a husband, she was not an unwilling captive. 
Whatever may have been her barbarous instincts, 
we have the testimony of Gov. Dale that she lived 
"civilly and lovingly" with her husband. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, CONTINUED. 

SIR THOMAS DALE was on the whole the most 
efficient and discreet Governor the colony had 
had. One element of his success was no doubt the 
change in the charter of 1609. By the first charter 
everything had been held in common by the com- 
pany, and there had been no division of property 
or allotment of land among the colonists. Under 
the new regime land was held in severalty, and the 
spur of individual interest began at once to improve 
the condition of the settlement. The character of 
the colonists was also gradually improving. They 
had not been of a sort to fulfill the earnest desire of 
the London promoters to spread vital piety in the 
New World. A zealous defense of Virginia and 
Maryland against "scandalous imputation," enti- 
tled "Leah and Rachel; or, The Two Fruitful Sis- 
ters," by Mr. John Hammond, London, 1656, 
considers the charges that Virginia " is an un- 
healthy place, a nest of rogues, abandoned women, 
dissolut and rookery persons; a place of intolerable 
labour, bad usage and hard diet;" and admits that 
" at the first settling, and for many years after, it 
deserved most of these aspersions, nor were they 
then aspersions but truths. . . . There were jails 
supplied, youth seduced, infamous women drilled in, 
the provision all brought out of England, and that 
embezzled by the Trustees." 



224 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [1614 

Governor Dale was a soldier; entering the army 
in the Netherlands as a private he had risen to high 
position, and received knighthood in 1606. Shortly 
after he was with Sir Thomas Gates in South Hol- 
land. The States General in 161 1 granted him 
three years' term of absence in Virginia. Upon his 
arrival he began to put in force that system of in- 
dustry and frugality he had observed in Holland. 
He had all the imperiousness of a soldier, and in an 
altercation with Captain Newport, occasioned by 
some injurious remarks the latter made about Sir 
Thomas Smith, the treasurer, he pulled his beard 
and threatened to hang him. Active operations for 
settling new plantations were at once begun, and 
Dale wrote to Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury, for 2,000 
good colonists to be sent out, for the three hundred 
that came were "so profane, so riotous, so full of 
mutiny, that not many are Christians but in name, 
their bodies so diseased and crazed that not sixty of 
them may be employed." He served afterwards 
with credit in Holland, was made commander of 
the East Indian fleet in 16 18, had a naval engage- 
ment with the Dutch near Bantam in 1619, and died 
in 1620 from the effects of the climate. He was 
twice married, and his second wife. Lady Fanny, 
the cousin of his first wife, survived him and re- 
ceived a patent for a Virginia plantation. 

Governor Dale kept steadily in view the con- 
version of the Indians to Christianity, and the suc- 
cess of John Rolfe with Matoaka inspired him with 
a desire to convert another daughter of Powhatan, 
of whose exquisite perfections he had heard. He 
therefore dispatched Ralph Hamor, with the Eng- 
lish boy, Thomas Savage, as interpreter, on a mis- 
sion to the court of Powhatan, "upon a message 



i6i4j THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 225 

unto him, which was to deale with him, if by any 
means I might procure a daughter of his, who (Po- 
cahuntas being already in our possession) is gen- 
erally reported to be his delight and darling, and 
surely he esteemed her as his owne soule, for surer 
pledge of peace." This visit Hamor relates with 
great naivete. 

At his town of Matchcot, near the head of York 
River, Powhatan himself received his visitors when 
they landed, with great cordiality, expressing much 
pleasure at seeing again the boy who had been pre- 
sented to him by Captain Newport, and whom he 
had not seen since he gave him leave to go and see 
his friends at Jamestown four years before; he also 
inquired anxiously after Namontack, whom he had 
sent to King James' land to see him and his coun- 
try and report thereon, and then led the way to his 
house, where he sat down on his bedstead side. " On 
each hand of him was placed a comely and per- 
sonable young woman, which they called his 
Queenes, the howse within round about beset with 
them, the outside guarded with a hundred bow- 
men." 

The first thing offered was a pipe of tobacco, 
which Powhatan "first drank," and then passed to 
Hamor, who " drank " what he pleased and then 
returned it. The Emperor then inquired how his 
brother Sir Thomas Dale fared^ " and after that of 
his daughter's welfare, her marriage, his unknown 
son, and how they liked, lived and loved together." 
Hamor replied " that his brother was very well, and 
his daughter so well content that she would not 
change her life to return and live with him, whereat 
he laughed heartily, and said he was very glad of 
it." 



226 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1614 

Powhatan then desired to know the cause of his 
unexpected coming, and Mr. Hamor said his mes- 
sage was private, to be delivered to him without the 
presence of any except one of his councilors, and 
one of the guides, who already knew it. 

Therefore the house was cleared of all except the 
two Queens, who may never sequester themselves, 
and Mr. Hamor began his palaver. First there was 
a message of love and inviolable peace, the produc- 
tion of presents of coffee, beads, combs, fish-hooks, 
and knives, and the promise of a grindstone when 
it pleased the Emperor to send for it. Hamor then 
proceeded: 

" The bruite of the exquesite perfection of your young- 
est daughter, being famous through all your territories, 
hath come to the hearing of your brother, Sir Thomas 
Dale, who for this purpose hath addressed me hither, to 
intreate you by that brotherly friendship you make pro- 
fession of,, to permit her (with me) to returne unto him, 
partly for the desire which himselfe hath, and partly for 
the desire her sister hath to see her of whom, if fame hath 
not been prodigall, as like enough it hath not, your broth- 
er (by your favour) would gladly make his nearest com- 
panion, wife and bed fellow [many times he would have 
interrupted my speech, which I entreated him to heare 
out, and then if he pleased to returne me answer], and the 
reason hereof is, because being now friendly and firm.ly 
united together, and made one people [as he supposeth and 
believes] in the bond of love, he would make a natural union 
between us, principally because himself hath taken resolu- 
tion to dwel in your country so long as he liveth, and 
would not only therefore have the firmest assurance hee 
may, of perpetuall friendship from you, but also hereby 
binde himselfe thereunto." 

Powhatan replied with dignity that he gladly ac- 
cepted the salute of love and peace, which he and 



i6i4] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 22/ 

his subjects would exactly maintain. But as to the 
other matter, he said: " My daughter, whom my 
brother desireth, I sold within these three days to 
be wife to a great Weroance for two bushels of 
Roanoke [a small kind of beads made of oyster 
shells], and it is true she is already gone with him, 
three days' journey from me." 

Hamor persisted that this marriage need not 
stand in the way; "that if he pleased herein to 
gratify his Brother he might, restoring the Roanoke 
without the imputation of injustice, take home his 
daughter again, the rather because she was not full 
twelve years old, and therefore not marriageable; 
assuring him besides the bond of peace, so much 
the firmer, he should have treble the price of his 
daughter in beads, copper, hatchets and many other 
things more useful for him." 

The reply of the noble old savage to this infamous 
demand ought to have brought a blush to the cheeks 
of those who made it. He said he loved his daugh- 
ter as dearly as his life; he had many children, but 
he delighted in none so much as in her; he could 
not live if he did not see her often, as he would 
not if she were living with the whites, and he was 
determined not to put himself in their hands. He 
desired no other assurance of friendship than his 
brother had given him, who had already one of his 
daughters as a pledge, which was sufficient while 
she lived; "when she dieth he shall have another 
child of mine." And then he broke forth in pa- 
thetic eloquence: "I hold it not a brotherly part 
of your King, to desire to bereave me of two of my 
children at once; further give him to understand, 
that if he had no pledge at all, he should not need 
to distrust any injury from me, or any under my 



228 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [1614 

subjection; there have been too many of his and my 
men killed, and by my occasion there shall never be 
more; I which have power to perform it have said 
it; no not though I should have just occasion of- 
fered, for I am now old and would gladly end my 
days in peace; so as if the English offer me any in- 
jury, my country is large enough, I will remove 
myself farther from you." 

The old man hospitably entertained his guests 
for a day or two, loaded them with presents, among 
which were two dressed buckskins, white as snow, 
for his son and daughter, and, requesting some ar- 
ticles sent him in return, bade them farewell with 
this message to Governor Dale: " I hope this will 
give him good satisfaction, if it do not I will go 
three days' journey farther from him, and never 
see Englishmen more." It speaks well for the tem- 
perate habits of this savage that after he had feast- 
ed his guests, " he caused to be fetched a great glass 
of sack, some three quarts or better, which Captain 
Newport had given him six or seven years since, 
carefully preserved by him, not much above a pint 
in all this time spent, and gave each of us in a great 
oyster shell some three spoonfuls." 

We trust that Sir Thomas Dale gave a faithful 
account of all this to his wife in England. 

Sir Thomas Gates left Virginia in the spring of 
16 14 and never returned. After his departure scar- 
city and severity developed a mutiny, and six of the 
settlers were executed. Rolfe was planting tobacco 
(he has the credit of being the first white planter of 
it), and his wife was getting an inside view of 
Christian civilization. 

In 1616 Sir Thomas Dale returned to England 
with his company and John Rolfe and Pocahontas, 



l6i6] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 229 

and several other Indians. They reached Plymouth 
early in June, and on the 20th Lord Carew made 
this note: "Sir Thomas Dale returned from Vir- 
ginia; he hath brought divers men and women of 
thatt countrye to be educated here, and one Rolfe 
who married a daughter of Pohetan (the barbarous 
prince) called Pocahuntas, hath brought his wife 
with him into England." On the 22d Sir John 
Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carlton that 
there were ten or twelve, old and young, of that 
country. 

The Indian girls who came with Pocahontas ap- 
pear to have been a great care to the London com- 
pany. In May, 1620, is a record that the company 
had to pay for physic and cordials for one of them 
who had been living as a servant in Cheapside, and 
was very weak of a consumption. The same year 
two other of the maids were shipped off to the Ber- 
mudas, after being long a charge to the company, 
in the hope that they might there get husbands, 
" that after they were converted and had children, 
they might be sent to their country and kindred to 
civilize them." One of them was there married. 
The attempt to educate them in England was not 
very successful, and a proposal to bring over Indian 
boys obtained this comment from Sir Edwin Sandys: 
" Now to send for them into England, and to have 
them educated here, he found upon experience of 
those brought by Sir Thomas Dale, might be far 
from the Christian work intended." One Nana- 
mack, a lad brought over by Lord Delaware, lived 
some years in houses where " he heard not much of 
religion but sins, had many times examples of 
drinking, swearing and like evils, ran as he was a 
mere Pagan," till he fell in with a devout family 



230 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [i6i6 

and changed his Hfe, but died before he was bap- 
tized. Accompanying Pocahontas was a councilor 
of Powhatan, one Tomocomo, the husband of one 
of her sisters, of whom Purchas says in his " Pil- 
grimes": "With this savage I have often conversed 
with my good friend Master Doctor Goldstone 
where he was a frequent geust, and where I have 
seen him sing and dance his diaboHcal measures, 
and heard him discourse of his country and rehgion. 
.... Master Rolfe lent me a discourse which I 
have in my Pilgrimage delivered. And his wife 
did not only accustom herself to civility, but still 
carried herself as the daughter of a king, and was 
accordingly respected, not only by the Company 
which allowed provision for herself and her son, 
but of divers particular persons of honor, in their 
hopeful zeal by her to advance Christianity. I was 
present when my honorable and reverend patron, 
the Lord Bishop of London, Doctor King, enter- 
tained her with festival state and pomp beyond 
what I had seen in his great hospitality offered to 
other ladies. At her return towards Virginia she 
came at Gravesend to her end and grave, having 
given great demonstration of her Christian sincerity, 
as the first fruits of Virginia conversion, leaving 
here a goodly memory,, and the hopes of her resur- 
rection, her soul aspiring to see and enjoy perma- 
nently in heaven what here she had joyed to hear 
and believe of her blessed Saviour. Not such was 
Tomocomo, but a blasphemer of what he knew not 
and preferring his God to ours because he taught 
them (by his own so appearing) to wear their Devil- 
lock at the left ear; he acquainted me with the man- 
ner of that his appearance, and believed that their 
Okee or Devil had taught them their husbandry." 



i6i6] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 23 1 

Upon news of her arrival, Capt. Smith, either to 
increase his own importance or because Pocahontas 
was neglected, addressed a letter or " little booke" 
to Queen Anne, the consort of King James. This 
letter is found in Smith's " General Historie" (1624), 
where it is introduced as having been sent to Queen 
Anne in 1616. Probably he sent her such a letter. 
We find no mention of its receipt or of any acknowl- 
edgment of it. Whether the " abstract" in the 
" General Historie" is exactly like the original we 
have no means of knowing. We have no more con- 
fidence in Smith's memory than we have in his 
dates. The letter is as follows: 

" To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene A7ine of 
Great Brittaine. 

" Most Admired Queene. 

" The love I beare my God, my King and Countrie hath 
so oft emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, 
that now honestie doth constraine mee presume thus farre 
beyond my selfe, to present your Majestic this short dis- 
course: if ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest 
vertues, I must be guiltie of that crime if I should omit 
any meanes to bee thankful. So it is. 

"That some ten yeeres agoe being in Virginia, and taken 
prisoner by the power of Powhaten, their chiefe King, I 
received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesie, 
especially from his sonne Nantaquaus, the most manliest, 
comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage and his 
sister Pocahontas, the Kings most deare and wel-beloved 
daughter, being but a childe of twelve or thirteen yeeres 
of age, whose compassionate pitifull heart, of desperate 
estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the 
first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants 
ever saw, and thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I 
cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the 
power of those my mortall foes to prevent notwithstand- 



232 CAPTAIN JOHN- SMITH. [1616 

ing al their threats. After some six weeks fatting amongst 
those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of my execution, 
she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save 
mine, and not onely that, but so prevailed with her father, 
that I was safely conducted to Jamestowne, where I found 
about eight and thirty miserable poore and sicke creatures, 
to keepe possession of all those large territories of Vir- 
ginia, such was the weaknesse of this poore Common- 
wealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had 
starved. 

" And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly 
brought us b}'" this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all 
these passages when inconstant Fortune turned our Peace 
to warre, this tender Virgin would still not spare to dare 
to visit us, and by her our jarres have been oft appeased, 
and our wants still supplyed ; were it the policie of her 
father thus to imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus 
to make her his instrument, or her extraordinarie affection 
to our Nation, I know not : but of this I am sure : when 
her father with the utmost of his policie and power, sought 
to surprize mee, having but eighteene with mee, the dark 
night could not affright her from com m ing through the 
irksome woods, and with watered eies gave me intilligence, 
with her best advice to escape his furie : which had hee 
known hee had surely slaine her. Jamestowne with her 
wild traine she as freely frequented, as her father's habita- 
tion : and during the time of two or three yeares, she next 
under God, was still the instrument to preserve this Col- 
onie from death, famine and utter confusion, which if in 
those times had once beene dissolved, Virginia might have 
laine as it was at our first arrivall to this day. Since then, this 
buisinesse having been turned and varied by many acci- 
dents from that I left it at : it is most certaine, after a long 
and troublesome warre after my departure, betwixt her 
father and our Colonic, all which time shee was not heard 
of, about two yeeres longer, the Colonic by that meanes 
was releived, peace concluded, and at last rejecting her 
barbarous condition, was marled to an English Gentleman, 
with whom at this present she is in England ; the first 



i6i6] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 233 

Christian ever of that Nation, the first Virginian ever 
spake English, or had a childe in manage by an English- 
man, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly considered 
and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding. 

"Thus most gracious Lady, I have related to your 
Majestic, what at your best leasure our approved Histo- 
ries will account you at. large, and done in the time of 
your Majesties life, and however this might bee presented 
you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more 
honest heart, as yet I never begged anything of the State, 
or any, and it is my want of abilitie and her exceeding 
desert, your birth meanes, and authoritie, her birth, vertue, 
want and simplicitie, doth make mee thus bold, humbly to 
beseech your Majestic : to take this knowledge of her 
though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as 
myselfe, her husband's estate not being able to make her 
fit to attend your Majestic : the most and least I can doe, 
is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried it as my- 
selfe : and the rather being of so great a spirit, however 
her station : if she should not be well received, seeing this 
Kingdome may rightly have a Kingdome by her meanes : 
her present love to us and Christianitie, might turne to 
such scorne and furie, as to divert all this good to the 
worst of evill, when finding so great a Oueene should doe 
her some honour more than she can imagine, for being so 
kinde to your servants and subjects, would so ravish her 
with content, as endeare her dearest bloud to effect that, 
your Majestic and all the Kings honest subjects most 
earnestly desire : and so I humbly kisse your gracious 
hands." 

The passage in this letter, " She hazarded the 
beating out of herowne braines to save mine," is in- 
consistent with the preceding portion of the para- 
graph which speaks of " the exceeding great cour- 
tesie" of Powhatan; and Smith was quite capable 
of inserting it afterwards when he made up his 
" General Historie." 



234 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1616 

Smith represents himself at this time — the last 
half of 16 16 and the first three months of 16 17 — as 
preparing to attempt a third voyage to New Eng- 
land (which he did not make), and too busy to do 
Pocahontas the service she desired. She was staying 
at Branford, either from neglect of the company or 
because the London smoke disagreed with her, and 
there Smith went to see her. His account of his 
intercourse with her, the only one we have, must be 
given for what it is worth. According to this she 
had supposed Smith dead, and took umbrage at his 
neglect of her. He writes: 

"After a modest salutation, without any word, she 
turned about, obscured her face, as not seeming well con- 
tented ; and in that humour, her husband with divers others, 
we all left her two or three hours repenting myself to 
have writ she could speak English. But not long after 
she began to talke, remembering me well what courtesies 
she had done: saying, 'You did promise Powhatan what 
was yours should be his, and he the like to you; you 
called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by 
the same reason so must I do you :' which though I would 
have excused, I durst not allow of that title, because she 
was a king's daughter. With a well set countenance she 
said : ' Were you not afraid to come into my father's 
country and cause fear in him and all his people (but 
me), and fear you have I should call you father; I tell 
you then I will, and you shall call me childe, and so 
I will be forever and ever, your contrieman. They did 
tell me alwaies you were dead, and I knew no other till 
I came to Plymouth, yet Powhatan did command Utta- 
matomakkin to seek you, and know the truth, because 
your countriemen will lie much.' " 

This savage was the Tomocomo spoken of above, 
who had been sent by Powhatan to take a census 
of the people of England, and report what they and 



i6i6] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, 235 

their state were. At Plymouth he got a long stick 
and began to make notches in it for the people he 
saw. But he was quickly weary of that task. He 
told Smith that Powhatan bade him seek him out, 
and get him to show him his God, and the King, 
Queen, and Prince, of whom Smith had told so 
much. Smith put him off about showing his God, 
but said he had heard that he had seen the King. This 
the Indian denied, James probably not coming up 
to his idea of a king, till by circumstances he 
was convinced he had seen him. Then he replied 
very sadly: "You gave Powhatan a white dog, 
which Powhatan fed as himself, but your king 
gave me nothing, and I am better than your white 
dog." 

Smith adds that he took several courtiers to see 
Pocahontas, and "they did think God had a great 
hand in her conversion, and they have seen many 
English ladies worse favoured, proportioned and 
behavioured;" and he heard that it had pleased the 
King and Queen greatly to esteem her, as also Lord 
and Lady Delaware, and other persons of good 
quality, both at the masques and otherwise. 

Much has been said about the reception of Poca- 
hontas in London, but the contemporary notices of 
her are scant. The Indians were objects of curi- 
osity for a time in London, as odd Americans have 
often been since, and the rank of Pocahontas pro- 
cured her special attention. She was presented at 
court. She was entertained by Dr. King, Bishop of 
London. At the playing of Ben Jonson's " Christ- 
mas his Mask" at court, January 6th, 1616-17, 
Pocahontas and Tomocomo were both present, and 
Chamberlain writes to Carleton: "The Virginian 
woman Pocahuntas with her father counsellor have 



236 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1616-17 

been with the King and graciously used, and both 
she and her assistant were pleased at the Masque. 
She is upon her return though sore against her will, 
if the wind would about to send her away." 

Mr. Neill says that " after the first weeks of her 
residence in England she does not appear to be 
spoken of as the wife of Rolfe by the letter writers," 
and the Rev. Peter Fontaine says that " when they 
heard that Rolfe had married Pocahontas, it was 
deliberated in council whether he had not com- 
mitted high treason by so doing, that is marrying 
an Indian princesse." 

It was like James to think so. His interest in 
the colony was never the most intelligent, and apt 
to be in things trivial. Lord Southampton (Dec. 
15, 1609) writes to Lord Salisbury that he had told 
the King of the Virginia squirrels brought into 
England, which are said to fly. The King very 
earnestly asked if none were provided for him, and 
said he was sure Salisbury would get him one. 
Would not have troubled him, " but that you know 
so well how he is affected to these toys." 

There has been recently found in the British 
Museum a print of a portrait of Pocahontas, with 
a legend round it in Latin, which is translated: 
" Matoaka, alias Rebecka, Daughter of Prince Pow- 
hatan, Emperor of Virginia; converted to Chris- 
tianity, married Mr. Rolff; died on shipboard at 
Gravesend 1617." This is doubtless the portrait 
engraved by Simon De Passe in 1616, and now in- 
serted in the extant copies of the London edition 
of the " General Historie," 1624. It is not proba- 
ble that the portrait was originally published with 
the "General Historic." The portrait inserted in 
the edition of 1624 has this inscription: 



I6i6-i7] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 237 

Round the portrait: 

" Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss Princ: Pohatani Imp: 
Virginiae." 

In the oval, under the portrait: 

" ^tatis suae 21 A° 
1616." 
Below: 

" Matoaks als Rebecka daughter to the mighty Prince Pow- 
hatan Emprour of Attanoughkomouck als Virginia converted 
and baptized in the Christian faith, and wife to the wor*^ Mr. 
Joh Rolff. 
i : Pass : sculp. Compton Holland exciid. 

Camden in his "History of Gravesend " says that 
"everybody paid this young lady all imaginable 
respect, and it was believed she would have suffi- 
ciently acknowledged those favors, had she lived to 
return to her own country, by bringing the Indians 
to a kinder disposition toward the English;" and 
that she died, " giving testimony all the time she 
lay sick, of her being a very good Christian." 

The Lady Rebecka, as she was called in London, 
died on shipboard at Gravesend after a brief illness, 
said to be of only three days, probably on the 21st 
of March, 161 7. I have seen somewhere a state- 
ment, which I cannot confirm, that her disease was 
small-pox. St. George's Church, where she was 
buried, was destroyed by fire in 1727. The register 
of that church has this record: 

" 1616, May 2j Rebecca Wrothe 

Wyff of Thomas Wroth gent 

A Virginia lady borne, here was buried 

in ye chaunncle." 

Yet there is no doubt, according to a record in 
the Calendar of State Papers, dated " 161 7 29 March, 
London," that her death occurred March 21, 1617. 



238 CAPTA IN JOHN SMI TH. [1617-22 

John Rolfe was made Secretary of Virginia when 
Captain Argall became Governor, and seems to 
have been associated in the schemes of that un- 
scrupulous person and to have forfeited the good 
opinion of the company. August 23d, 1618, the 
company wrote to Argall: " We cannot imagine why 
you should give us warning that Opechankano and 
the natives have given the country to Mr. Rolfe's 
child, and that they reserve it from all others till 
he comes of years except as we suppose as some do 
here report it be a device of your own, to some 
special purpose for yourself." It appears also by 
the minutes of the company in 1621 that Lady Dela- 
ware had trouble to recover goods of hers left in 
Rolfe's hands in Virginia, and desired a commission 
directed to Sir Thomas Wyatt and Mr. George 
Sandys to examine what goods of the late " Lord 
Deleware had come into Rolfe's possession and get 
satisfaction of him." This George Sandys is the fa- 
mous traveler who made a journey through the 
Turkish Empire in 16 10, and who wrote, while liv- 
ing in Virginia, the first book written in the New 
World, the completion of his translation of Ovid's 
" Metamorphosis." 

John Rolfe died in Virginia in 1622, leaving a 
wife and children. This is supposed to be his third 
wife, though there is no note of his marriage to her 
nor of the death of his first. October 7th, 1622, his 
brother Henry Rolfe petitioned that the estate of 
John should be converted to the support of his rel- 
ict wife and children and to his own indemnity for 
having brought up John's child by Powhatan's 
daughter. 

This child, named Thomas Rolfe, was given after 
the death of Pocahontas to the keeping of Sir Lewis 



I6i8] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 239 

Stukely of Plymouth, who fell into evil practices, 
and the boy was transferred to the guardianship of 
his uncle Henry Rolfe, and educated in London. 
When he was grown up he returned to Virginia, 
and was probably there married. There is on 
record his application to the Virginia authorities in 
1641 for leave to go into the Indian country and 
visit Cleopatra, his mother's sister. He left an only 
daughter who was married, says Stith (1753), "to 
Col. John Boiling; by whom she left an only son, 
the late Major John Boiling, who was father to 
the present Col. John Boiling, and several daugh- 
ters, married to Col. Richard Randolph, Col. 
John Fleming, Dr. William Gay, Mr. Thomas El- 
dridge, and Mr. James Murray." Campbell in his 
" History of Virginia " says that the first Randolph 
that came to the James River was an esteemed and 
industrious mechanic, and that one of his sons, 
Richard, grandfather of the celebrated John Ran- 
dolph, married Jane Boiling, the great grand- 
daughter of Pocahontas. 

In 16 1 8 died the great Powhatan, full of years 
and satiated with fighting and the savage delights 
of life. He had many names and titles; his own 
people sometimes called him Ottaniack, sometimes 
Mamauatonick, and usually in his presence Wahun- 
senasawk. He ruled, by inheritance and conquest, 
with many chiefs under him, over a large territory 
with not defined borders, lying on the James, the 
York, the Rappahannock, the Potomac, and the 
Pawtuxet Rivers. He had several seats, at which 
he alternately lived with his many wives and guard 
of bowmen, the chief of which at the arrival of the 
English was Werowcomocomo, on the Pamunkey 
(York) River. His state has been sufficiently de- 



240 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610-18 

scribed. He is said to have had a hundred wives, 
and generally a dozen — the youngest — personally 
attending him. When he had amind to add to his 
harem he seems to have had the ancient oriental 
custom of sending into all his dominions for the 
fairest maidens to be brought from whom to select. 
And he gave the wives of whom he was tired to his 
favorites. 

Strachey makes a striking description of him as 
he appeared about 1610: " He is a goodly old man, 
not yet shrincking, though well beaten with cold 
and stormeye winters, in which he hath been patient 
of many necessityes and attempts of his fortune to 
make his name and famely great. He is supposed 
to be little lesse than eighty yeares old, I dare not 
saye how much more; others saye he is of a tall 
stature and cleane lymbes, of a sad aspect, rownd 
fatt visaged, with graie haires, but plaine and thin, 
hanging upon his broad showlders; some few haires 
upon his chin, and so on his upper lippe: he hath 
been a strong and able salvadge, synowye, vigilant, 
ambitious, subtile to enlarge his dominions: . . . 
cruell he hath been, and quarellous as well with his 
own werowances for trifles, and that to strike a ter- 
rour and awe into them of his power and condicion, 
as also with his neighbors in his younger days, 
though now delighted in security and pleasure, and 
therefore stands upon reasonable conditions ^ of 
peace with all the great and absolute werowances 
about him, and is likewise more quietly settled 
amongst his own." 

It was at this advanced age that he had the twelve 
favorite young wives whom Strachey names. All 
his people obeyed him with fear and adoration, pre- 
senting anything he ordered at his feet, and trem- 



i6io-i8] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, 24I 

bling if he frowned. His punishments were cruel; 
offenders were beaten to death before him, or tied 
to trees and dismembered joint by joint, or broiled 
to death on burning coals. Strachey wondered how 
such a barbarous prince should put on such osten- 
tation of majesty, yet he accounted for it as be- 
longing to the necessary divinity that doth hedge 
in a king: " Such is (I believe) the impression of 
the divine nature, and however these (as other 
heathens forsaken by the true light) have not that 
porcion of the knowing blessed Christian spiritt, 
yet I am perswaded there is an infused kind of di- 
vinities and extraordinary (appointed that it shall 
be so by the King of kings) to such as are his 
ymedyate instruments on earth." 

Here is perhaps as good a place as any to say a 
word or two about the appearance and habits of 
Powhatan's subjects, as they were observed by 
Strachey and Smith. A sort of religion they had, 
with priests or conjurors, and houses set apart as 
temples, wherein images were kept and conjurations 
performed, but the ceremonies seem not worship, 
but propitiations against evil, and there seems to 
have been no conception of an overruling power or 
of an immortal life. Smith describes a ceremony 
of sacrifice of children to their deity; but this is 
doubtful, although Parson Whittaker, who calls the 
Indians " naked slaves of the devil," also says they 
sacrificed sometimes themselves and sometimes 
their own children. An image of their god which 
he sent to England " was painted upon one side of 
a toadstool, much like unto a deformed monster." 
And he adds: " Their priests, whom they call Quoc- 
kosoughs, are no other but such as our English 
witches are." This notion I believe also pertained 



242 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [1610-18 

among the New England colonists. There was a 
belief that the Indian conjurors had some power 
over the elements, but not a well-regulated power, 
and in time the Indians came to a belief in the 
better effect of the invocations of the whites. In 
" Winslow's Relation," quoted by Alexander Young 
in his "Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers," under 
date of July, 1623, we read that on account of a 
great drought a fast day was appointed. When the 
assembly met the sky was clear. The exercise 
lasted eight or nine hours. Before they broke up, 
owing to prayers the weather was overcast. Next 
day began a long gentle rain. This the Indians 
seeing, admired the goodness of our God: "show- 
ing the difference between their conjuration and 
our invocation in the name of God for rain; theirs 
being mixed with such storms and tempests, as 
sometimes, instead of doing them good, it layeth 
the corn flat on the ground; but ours in so gentle 
and seasonable a manner, as they never observed 
the like." 

It was a common opinion of the early settlers in 
Virginia, as it was of those in New England, that 
the Indians were born white, but that they got a 
brown or tawny color by the use of red ointments, 
made of earth and the juice of roots, with which 
they besmear themselves either according to the 
custom of the country or as a defense against the 
stinging of mosquitoes. The women are of the 
same hue as the men, says Strachey; " howbeit, it 
is supposed neither of them naturally borne so dis- 
colored; for Captain Smith (lyving sometymes 
amongst them) affirmeth how they are from the 
womb indifferent white, but as the men, so doe the 
women," "dye and disguise themselves into this 



i6io-i8] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 243 

tawny cowler, esteeming it the best beauty to be 
nearest such a kind of murrey as a sodden quince 
is of," as the Greek women colored their faces and 
the ancient Britain women dyed themselves with 
red; "howbeit [Strachey slyly adds] he or she that 
hath obtained the perfected art in the tempering of 
this collour with any better kind of earth, yearb or 
root preserves it not yet so secrett and precious unto 
herself as doe our great ladyes their oyle of talchum, 
or other painting white and red, but they frindly 
communicate the secret and teach it one another." 

Thomas Lechford in his " Plain Dealing ; or 
Newes from New England," London, 1642, says: 
"They are of complexion swarthy and tawny; their 
children are borne white, but they bedawbe them 
with oyle and colors presently." 

The men are described as tall, straight, and of 
comely proportions; no beards; hair black, coarse, 
and thick; noses broad, flat, and full at the end; 
with big lips and wide mouths, yet nothing so un- 
sightly as the Moors; and the women as having 
''handsome limbs, slender arms, pretty hands, and 
when they sing they have a pleasant tange in their 
voices. The men shaved their hair on the right 
side, the women acting as barbers, and left the hair 
full length on the left side, with a lock an ell long." 
A Puritan divine — " New England's Plantation, 
1630" — says of the Indians about him, " their hair 
is generally black, and cut before like our gentle- 
women, and one lock longer than the rest, much 
like to our gentlemen, which fashion I think came 
from hence into England." 

Their love of ornaments is sufficiently illustrated 
by an extract from Strachey, which is in substance 
what Smith writes: 



244 CAPTAIN JOHT^ SMITH. [161Q-18 

" Their eares they boare with wyde holes, commonly two 
or three, and in the same they doe hang chaines of stayned 
pearle braceletts, of white bone or shreeds of copper, 
beaten thinne and bright, and wounde up hollowe, and 
with a grate pride, certaine fowles' legges, eagles, hawkes, 
turkeys, etc., with beasts clawes, bears, arrahacounes, squir- 
rells, etc. The clawes thrust through they let hang upon 
the cheeke to the full view, and some of their men there 
be who will weare in these holes a small greene and yellow- 
couloured live snake, neere half a yard in length, which 
crawling and lapping himself about his neck oftentymes 
familiarly, he suffreeth to kisse his lippes. Others weare 
a dead ratt tyed by the tayle, and such like conundrums." 

This is the earliest use I find of our word " conun- 
drum," and the sense it bears here may aid in dis- 
covering its origin. 

Powhatan is a very large figure in early Virginia 
history, and deserves his prominence. He was an 
able and crafty savage, and made a good fight 
against the encroachments of the whites, but he was 
no match for the crafty Smith, nor the double- 
dealing of the Christians. There is something 
pathetic about the close of his life, his sorrow for 
the death of his daughter in a strange land, when 
he saw his territories overrun by the invaders, from 
whom he only asked peace, and the poor privilege 
of moving further away from them into the wilder- 
ness if they denied him peace. 

In the midst of this savagery Pocahontas blooms 
like a sweet, wild rose. She was, like the Douglas, 
"tender and true." Wanting apparently the cruel 
nature of her race generally, her heroic qualities 
were all of the heart. No one of all the contempo- 
rary writers has anything but gentle words for her. 
Barbarous and untaught she was like her comrades, 
but of a gentle nature. Stripped of all the fictions 



i6io-i8] THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 245 

which Capt. Smith has woven into her story, and 
all the romantic suggestions which later writers 
have indulged in, she appears, in the light of the 
few facts that industry is able to gather concerning 
her, as a pleasing and unrestrained Indian girl, 
probably not different from her savage sisters in her 
habits, but bright and gentle; struck with admira- 
tion at the appearance of the white men, and easily 
moved to pity them, and so inclined to a growing 
and lasting friendship for them; tractable and apt 
to learn refinements; accepting the new religion 
through love for those who taught it, and finally 
becoming in her maturity a well-balanced, sensible, 
dignified Christian woman. 

According to the long-accepted story of Poca- 
hontas she did something more than interfere to 
save from barbarous torture and death a stranger 
and a captive, who had forfeited his life by shooting 
those who opposed his invasion. In all times, 
among the most savage tribes and in civilized 
society, women have been moved to heavenly pity 
by the sight of a prisoner, and risked life to save 
him — the impulse was as natural to a Highland lass 
as to an African maid. Pocahontas went further 
than efforts to make peace between the superior race 
and her own. When the whites forced the Indians 
to contribute from their scanty stores to the sup- 
port of the invaders, and burned their dwellings and 
shot them on sight if they refused, the Indian maid 
sympathized with the exposed whites and warned 
them of stratagems against them; captured herself 
by a base violation of the laws of hospitality, she 
was easily reconciled to her situation, adopted the 
habits of the foreigners, married one of her captors, 
and in peace and in war cast in her lot with the 



246 CAP TA IN JOHN SMI Tff. [1616-17 

Strangers. History has not preserved for us the 
Indian view of her conduct. 

It was no doubt fortunate for her, though per- 
haps not for the colony, that her romantic career 
ended by an early death, so that she always remains 
in history in the bloom of youth. She did not live 
to be pained by the contrast, to which her eyes were 
opened, between her own and her adopted people, nor 
to learn what things could be done in the Christian 
name she loved, nor to see her husband in a less 
honorable light than she left him, nor to be involved 
in any way in the frightful massacre of 1622. If 
she had remained in England after the novelty was 
over, she might have been subject to slights and 
mortifying neglect. The struggles of the fighting 
colony could have brought her little but pain. 
Dying when she did she rounded out one of the 
prettiest romances of all history, and secured for 
her name the affection of a great nation, whose 
empire has spared little that belonged to her child- 
hood and race, except the remembrance of her 
friendship for those who destroyed her people. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH returned to England 
in the autumn of 1609, wounded in body and 
loaded with accusations of misconduct, concocted 
by his factious companions in Virginia. There is 
no record that these charges were ever considered 
by the London Company. Indeed, we cannot find 
that the company in those days ever took any 
action on the charges made against any of its ser- 
vants in Virginia. Men came home in disgrace and 
appeared to receive neither vindication nor condem- 
nation. Some sunk into private life, and others 
more pushing and brazen, like Ratcliffe, the enemy 
of Smith, got employment again after a time. The 
affairs of the company seem to have been conducted 
with little order or justice. 

Whatever may have been the justice of the charges 
against Smith, he had evidently forfeited the good 
opinion of the company as a desirable man to em- 
ploy. They might esteem his energy and profit by 
his advice and experience, but they did not want 
his services. And in time he came to be considered 
an enemy of the company. 

Unfortunately for biographical purposes, Smith's 
life is pretty much a blank from 1609 to 1614. 
When he ceases to write about himself he passes 
out of sight. There are scarcely any contemporary 
allusions to his existence at this time. We may 



248 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 3(^35 

assume, however, from our knowledge of his rest- 
lessness, ambition, and love of adventure, that he 
was not idle. We may assume that he besieged the 
company with his plans for the proper conduct of 
the settlement of Virginia; that he talked at large 
in all companies of his discoveries, his exploits, 
which grew by the relating, and of the prospective 
greatness of the new Britain beyond the Atlantic. 
That he wearied the Council by his importunity and 
his acquaintances by his hobby, we can also sur- 
mise. No doubt also he was considered a fanatic 
by those who failed to comprehend the greatness 
of his schemes, and to realize, as he did, the impor- 
tance of securing the new empire to the English 
before it was occupied by the Spanish and the 
French. His conceit, his boasting, and his over- 
bearing manner, which no doubt was one of the 
causes why he was unable to act in harmony with 
the other adventurers of that day, all told against 
him. He was that most uncomfortable person, a 
man conscious of his own importance, and out of 
favor and out of money. 

Yet Smith had friends, and followers, and men 
who believed in him. This is shown by the re- 
markable eulogies in verse from many pens, which 
he prefixes to the various editions of his many 
works. They seem to have been written after read- 
ing the manuscripts, and prepared to accompany 
the printed volumes and tracts. They all allude to 
the envy and detraction to which he was subject, 
and which must have amounted to a storm of abuse 
and perhaps ridicule; and they all tax the English 
vocabulary to extol Smith, his deeds, and his works. 
In putting forward these tributes of admiration and 
affection, as well as in his constant allusion to the 



1609-14] iV^^^ ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 249 

ill requital of his services, we see a man fighting for 
his reputation, and conscious of the necessity of 
doing so. He is ever turning back, in whatever he 
writes, to rehearse his exploits and to defend his 
motives. 

The London to which Smith returned was the 
London of Shakespeare's day; a city dirty, with ill- 
paved streets unlighted at night, no sidewalks, foul 
gutters, wooden houses, gable ends to the street, set 
thickly with small windows from which slops and 
refuse were at any moment of the day or night 
liable to be emptied upon the heads of the passers 
by; petty little shops in which were beginning to 
be displayed the silks and luxuries of the continent; 
a city crowded and growing rapidly, subject to pes- 
tilences and liable to sweeping conflagrations. The 
Thames had no bridges, and hundreds of boats 
plied between London side and Southwark, where 
were most of the theaters, the bull-baitings, the bear- 
fighting, the public gardens, the residences of the 
hussies, and other amusements that Bankside, the 
resort of all classes bent on pleasure, furnished high 
or low. At no time before or since was there such 
fantastical fashion in dress, both in cut and gay 
colors, nor more sumptuousness in costume or 
luxury in display among the upper classes, and such 
squalor in low life. The press teemed with tracts 
and pamphlets, written in language " as plain as a 
pikestaff," against the immoralities of the theaters, 
those " seminaries of vice," and calling down the 
judgment of God upon the cost and the monstrosi- 
ties of the dress of both men and women; while the 
town roared on its way, warned by sermons, and in- 
structed in its chosen path by such plays and masques 
as Ben Jonson's " Pleasure reconciled to Virtue." 



250 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 35 

The town swarmed with idlers, and with gallants 
who wanted advancement but were unwilling to 
adventure their ease to obtain it. There was much 
lounging in apothecaries' shops to smoke tobacco, 
gossip, and hear the news. We may be sure that 
Smith found many auditors for his adventures and 
his complaints. There was a good deal of interest 
in the New World, but mainly still as a place where 
gold and other wealth might be got without much 
labor, and as a possible short cut to the South Sea 
and Cathay. The vast number of Londoners whose 
names appear in the second Virginia charter shows 
the readiness of traders to seek profit in adventure. 
The stir for wider freedom in religion and govern- 
ment increased with the activity of exploration and 
colonization, and one reason why James finally 
annulled the Virginia charter was because he re- 
garded the meetings of the London Company as 
opportunities of sedition. 

Smith is altogether silent about his existence at 
this time. We do not hear of him till 161 2, when 
his " Map of Virginia" with his description of the 
country was published at Oxford. The map had 
been published before: it was sent home with at 
least a portion of the description of Virginia. In 
an appendix appeared (as has been said) a series of 
narrations of Smith's exploits, covering the time he 
was in Virginia, written by his companions, edited 
by his friend Dr. Symonds, and carefully overlooked 
by himself. 

Failing to obtain employment by the Virginia 
company. Smith turned his attention to New Eng- 
land, but neither did the Plymouth company avail 
themselves of his service. At last in 16 14 he per- 
suaded some London merchants to fit him out for a 



I6i4] NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 2$ I 

private trading adventure to the coast of New Eng- 
land. Accordingly with two ships, at the charge of 
Capt. Marmaduke Roydon, Capt. George Langam, 
Mr. John Buley. and William Skelton, merchants, 
he sailed from the Downs on the 3d of March, 1614, 
and in the latter part of April " chanced to arrive 
in New England, a part of America at the Isle of 
Monahiggan in 43^ of Northerly latitude." This 
was within the territory appropriated to the second 
(the Plymouth) colony by the patent of 1606, which 
gave leave of settlement between the 38th and 44th 
parallels. 

Smith's connection with New England is very 
slight, and mainly that of an author, one who 
labored for many years to excite interest in it by his 
writings. He named several points, and made a 
map of such portion of the coast as he saw, which 
was changed from time to time by other observa- 
tions. He had a remarkable eye for topography, 
as is especially evident by his map of Virginia. 
This New England coast is roughly indicated in 
Venazzani's plot of 1524, and better on Merca- 
tor's of a few years later, and in Ortelius's " Thea- 
trum Orbis Terarum" of 1570; but in Smith's map 
we have for the first time a fair approach to the real 
contour. 

Of Smith's English predecessors on this coast there 
is no room here to speak. Gosnold had described 
Elizabeth's Isles, explorations and settlements had 
been made on the coast of Maine by Popham and 
Weymouth, but Smith claims the credit of not only 
drawing the first fair map of the coast, but of giving 
the name " New England " to what had passed un- 
der the general names of Virginia, Canada, Norum- 
baga, etc. 



252 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [-<^t. 35 

Smith published his description of New Eng- 
land June i8th, 1616, and it is in that we must fol- 
low his career. It is dedicated to the *' high, hopeful 
Charles, Prince of Great Britain," and is prefaced 
b}^ an address to the King's Council for all the plan- 
tations, and another to all the adventurers into 
New England. The addresses, as usual, call atten- 
tion to his own merits. " Little honey [he writes] 
hath that hive, where there are more drones than 
bees; and miserable is that land where more are 
idle than are well employed. If the endeavors of 
these vermin be acceptable, I hope mine may be 
excusable: though I confess it were more proper for 
me to be doing what I say than writing what I know\ 
Had I returned rich I could not have erred; now 
having only such food as came to my net, I must be 
taxed. But, I would my taxers were as ready to 
adventure their purses as I, purse, life, and all I 
have; or as diligent to permit the charge, as I know 
they are vigilant to reap the fruits of my labors." 
The value of the fisheries he had demonstrated by 
his catch; and he says, looking, as usual, to large 
results, " but because I speak so much of fishing, 
if any mistake me for such a devote fisher, as I 
dream of nought else, they mistake me. I know a 
ring of gold from a grain of barley as well as a 
goldsmith; and nothing is there to be had which 
fishing doth hinder, but further us to obtain." 

John Smith first appears on the New England 
coast as a whale fisher. The only reference to his 
being in America in Josselyn's " Chronological 
Observations of America " is under the wrong year, 
1608: " Capt. John Smith fished now for whales at 
Monhiggen." He says: " Our plot there was to 
take whales, and made tryall of a Myne of gold and 



I6i4] NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 253 

copper;" these failing they were to get fish and furs. 
Of gold there had been little expectation, and (he 
goes on) " we found this whale fishing a costly con- 
clusion; we saw many, and spent much time in 
chasing them; but could not kill any; they being a 
kind of Jubartes, and not the whale that yeeldes 
finnes and oyle as we expected." They then turned 
their attention to smaller fish, but owing to their 
late arrival and " long lingering about the whale" — 
chasing a whale that they could not kill because 
it was not the right kind — the best season for 
fishing was passed. Nevertheless, they secured 
some 40,000 cod — the figure is naturally raised to 
60,000 when Smith retells the story fifteen years 
afterwards. 

But our hero was a born explorer, and could not 
be content with not examining the strange coast 
upon which he found himself. Leaving his sailors 
to catch cod, he took eight or nine men in a small 
boat, and cruised along the coast, trading wherever 
he could for furs, of which he obtained above a 
thousand beaver skins; but his chance to trade was 
limited by the French settlements in the east, by 
the presence of one of Popham's ships opposite 
Monhegan, on the main, and by a couple of French 
vessels to the westward. Having examined the 
coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, and gathered a 
profitable harvest from the sea. Smith returned in 
his vessel, reaching the Downs within six months 
after his departure. This was his whole experience 
in New England, which ever afterwards he regarded 
as particularly his discovery, and spoke of as one of 
his children, Virginia being the other. 

With the other vessel Smith had trouble. He 
accuses its master, Thomas Hunt, of attempting to 



254 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, [^t. 35 

rob him of his plots and observations, and to leave 
him "alone on a desolate isle, to the fury of famine, 
and all other extremities." After Smith's depar- 
ture the rascally Hunt decoyed twenty-seven un- 
suspecting savages on board his ship and carried 
them off to Spain, where he sold them as slaves. 
Hunt sold his furs at a great profit. Smith's cargo 
also paid well: in his letter to Lord Bacon in 1618 
he says that with forty-five men he had cleared 
;£i5oo in less than three months on a cargo of dried 
fish and beaver skins — a pound at that date had 
five times the purchasing power of a pound now. 

The explorer first landed on Monhegan, a small 
island in sight of which in the war of 1812 occurred 
the lively little sea-fight of the American Wasp and 
the British Frolic, in which the Wasp was the victor, 
but directly after, with her prize, fell into the hands 
of an English seventy-four. 

He made certainly a most remarkable voyage in 
his open boat. Between Penobscot and Cape Cod 
(which he called Cape James) he says he saw forty 
several habitations, and sounded about twenty-five 
excellent harbors. Although Smith accepted the 
geographical notion of his time, and thought that 
Florida adjoined India, he declared that Virginia 
was not an island, but part of a great continent, 
and he comprehended something of the vastness of 
the country he was coasting along, " dominions 
which stretch themselves into the main, God doth 
know how many thousand miles, of which one 
could no more guess the extent and products than 
a stranger sailing betwixt England and France 
could tell what was in Spain, Italy, Germany, Bo- 
hemia, Hungary, and the rest." And he had the 
prophetic vision, which he more than once "refers 



I6i4] NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 255 

to, of one of the greatest empires of the world that 
would one day arise here. Contrary to the opinion 
that prevailed then and for years after, he declared 
also that New England was not an island. 

Smith describes with considerable particularity 
the coast, giving the names of the Indian tribes, 
and cataloguing the native productions, vegetable 
and animal. He bestows his favorite names liber- 
ally upon points and islands — few of which were 
accepted. Cape Ann he called from his charming 
Turkish benefactor, "Cape Tragabigzanda;" the 
three islands in front of it, the " Three Turks' 
Heads;" and the Isles of Shoals he simply describes: 
" Smyth's Isles are a heape together, none neare 
them, against Acconimticus." Cape Cod, which ap- 
pears upon all the maps before Smith's visit as 
" Sandy" cape, he says " is only a headland of high 
hills of sand, overgrown with shrubbie pines, hurts 
[whorts, whortleberries] and such trash; but an 
excellent harbor for all weathers. This Cape is 
made by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great 
bay on the other in the form of a sickle." 

A large portion of this treatise on New England 
is devoted to an argument to induce the English to 
found a permanent colony there, of which Smith 
shows that he would be the proper leader. The 
main staple for the present would be fish, and he 
shows how Holland has become powerful by her 
fisheries and the training of hardy sailors. The 
fishery would support a colony until it had ob- 
tained a good foothold, and control of these fisher- 
ies would bring more profit to England than any 
other occupation. There are other reasons than 
gain that should induce in England the large ambi- 
tion of founding a great state, reasons of religion 



256 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 35 

and humanity; erecting towns, peopling countries, 
informing the ignorant, reforming things unjust, 
teaching virtue, finding employment for the idle, 
and giving to the mother country a kingdom to at- 
tend her. But he does not expect the English to 
indulge in such noble ambitions unless he can show 
a profit in them. 

" I have not [he says] been so ill bred but I have 
tasted of plenty and pleasure, as well as want and 
misery; nor doth a necessity yet, nor occasion of 
discontent, force me to these endeavors; nor am I 
ignorant that small thank I shall have for my pains; 
or that many would have the world imagine them 
to be of great judgment, that can but blemish these 
my designs, by their witty objections and detrac- 
tions; yet (I hope) my reasons and my deeds will so 
prevail with some, that I shall not want employ- 
ment in these affairs to make the most blind see his 
own senselessness and incredulity; hoping that gain 
will make them affect that which religion, charity 
and the common good cannot. . . . For I am 
not so simple to think that ever any other motive 
than wealth will ever erect there a Commonwealth; 
or draw company from their ease and humours at 
home, to stay in New England to effect any pur- 
pose." 

But lest the toils of the new settlement should 
affright his readers, our author draws an idyllic pic- 
ture of the simple pleasures which nature and lib- 
erty afford here freely, but which cost so dearly in 
England. Those who seek vain pleasure in Eng- 
land take more pains to enjoy it than they would 
spend in New England to gain wealth, and yet have 
not half such sweet content. What pleasure can be 
more, he exclaims, when men are tired of planting 



i6i5] JV£IV ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 257 

vines and fruits and ordering gardens, orchards and 
building to their mind, than " to recreate themselves 
before their owne doore, in their owne boates upon 
the Sea, where man, woman and child, with a small 
hooke and line, by angling, may take divers sorts of 
excellent fish at their pleasures? And is it not 
pretty sport, to pull up two pence, six pence, and 
twelve pence as fast as you can hale and veere a 
line ? . . . And what sport doth yield more 
pleasing content, and less hurt or charge than ang- 
ling with a hooke, and crossing the sweet ayre from 
Isle to Isle, over the silent streams of a calme Sea ? 
wherein the most curious may finde pleasure, profit 
and content." 

Smith made a most attractive picture of the fer- 
tility of the soil and the fruitfulness of the country. 
Nothing was too trivial to be mentioned. ''There 
are certain red berries called Alkermes which is 
worth ten shillings a pound, but of these hath been 
sold for thirty or forty shillings the pound, may 
yearly be gathered a good quantity." John Josse- 
lyn, who was much of the time in New England 
from 1638 to 167 1, and saw more marvels there than 
anybody else ever imagined, says, " I have sought 
for this berry he speaks of, as a man should for a 
needle in a bottle of hay, but could never light upon 
it; unless that kind of Solomon's seal called by the 
English treacle-berry should be it." 

Towards the last of August, 1614, Smith was back 
at Plymouth. He had now a project of a colony 
which he imparted to his friend Sir Ferdinand 
Gorges. It is difficult from Smith's various accounts 
to say exactly what happened to him next. It 
would appear that he declined to go with an expe- 
dition of four ships which the Virginia company dis- 



258 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 36 

patched in 1615, and incurred their ill-will by refus- 
ing, but he considered himself attached to the west- 
ern or Plymouth company. Still he experienced 
many delays from them: they promised four ships 
to be ready at Plymouth; on his arrival "he found 
no such matter," and at last he embarked in a pri- 
vate expedition, to found a colony at the expense of 
Gorges, Dr. Sutliffe, Bishop of Exeter, and a few 
gentlemen in London. In January, 1615, he sailed 
from Plymouth with a ship of 200 tons, and another 
of 50. His intention was, after the fishing was over, 
to remain in New England with only fifteen men 
and begin a colony. 

These hopes were frustrated. When only one 
hundred and twenty leagues out all the masts of 
bis vessels were carried away in a storm, and it was 
only by diligent pumping that he was able to keep 
his craft afloat and put back to Plymouth. Thence 
on the 24th of June he made another start in a 
vessel of sixty tons, with thirty men. But ill-luck 
still attended him. He had a queer adventure with 
pirates. Lest the envious world should not believe 
his own story. Smith had Baker, his steward, and 
several of his crew examined before a magistrate at 
Plymouth, December 8, i6i5,who support his story 
by their testimony up to a certain point. 

It appears that he was chased two days by one 
Fry, an English pirate, in a greatly superior vessel, 
heavily armed and manned. By reason of the foul 
weather the pirate could not board Smith, and his 
master, mate, and pilot. Chambers, Minter, and 
Digby, importuned him to surrender, and that he 
should send a boat to the pirate, as Fry had no 
boat. This singular proposal Smith accepted on 
condition Fry would not take anything that would. 



i6i5] NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 259 

cripple his voyage, or send more men aboard (Smith 
furnishing the boat) than he allowed. Baker con- 
fessed that the quartermaster and Chambers re- 
ceived gold of the pirates, for what purpose it does 
not appear. They came on board, but Smith would 
not come out of his cabin to entertain them, "al- 
though a great many of them had been his sailors, 
and for his love would have wafted us to the Isle of 
Flowers." 

Having got rid of the pirate Fry by this singular 
manner of receiving gold from him. Smith's vessel 
was next chased by two French pirates at Fayal. 
Chambers, Minter, and Digby again desired Smith 
to yield, but he threatened to blow up his ship if 
they did not stand to the defense; and so they got 
clear of the French pirates. But more were to 
come. 

At " Flowers" they were chased by four French 
men-of-war. Again Chambers, Minter, and Digby 
importuned Smith to yield, and upon the considera- 
tion that he could speak French, and that they were 
Protestants of Rochelle and had the King's com- 
mission to take Spaniards, Portuguese, and pirates, 
Smith, with some of his company, went on board 
one of the French ships. The next day the French 
plundered Smith's vessel and distributed his crew 
among their ships, and for a week employed his 
boat in chasing all the ships that came in sight. At 
the end of this bout they surrendered her again to 
her crew, with victuals but no weapons. Smith ex- 
horted his officers to proceed on their voyage for 
fish, either to New England or Newfoundland, 
This the officers declined to do at first, but the 
soldiers on board compelled them, and thereupon 
Capt. Smith busied himself in collecting from the 



26o CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 36 

French fleet and sending on board his bark various 
commodities that belonged to her — powder, match, 
books, instruments, his sword and dagger, bedding, 
aqua vitcC, his commission, apparel, and many other 
things. These articles Chambers and the others 
divided among themselves, leaving Smith, who was 
still on board the Frenchman, only his waistcoat 
and breeches. The next day, the weather being 
foul, they ran so near the Frenchman as to endan- 
ger their yards, and Chambers called to Capt. 
Smith to come aboard or he would leave him. 
Smith ordered him to send a boat; Chambers re- 
plied that his boat was split, which was a lie, and 
told him to come off in the Frenchman's boat. 
Smith said he could not command that, and so 
they parted. The English bark returned to Plym- 
outh, and Smith was left on board the French 
man-of-war. 

Smith himself says that Chambers had persuaded 
the French admiral that if Smith was let to go on 
his boat he would revenge himself on the French 
fisheries on the Banks. 

For over two months, according to his narration. 
Smith was kept on board the Frenchman, cruising 
about for prizes, ''to manage their fight against 
the Spaniards, and be in a prison when they took 
any English." One of their prizes was a sugar 
caravel from Brazil; another was a West Indian 
worth two hundred thousand crowns, which had on 
board fourteen coffers of wedges of silver, eight 
thousand royals of eight, and six coffers of the 
King of Spain's treasure, besides the pillage and 
rich coffers of many rich passengers. The French 
captain, breaking his promise to put Smith ashore 
at Fayal, at length sent him towards France on the 



i6i5] NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES. 26 1 

sugar caravel. When near the coast, in a night of 
terrible storm, Smith seized a boat and escaped. 
It was a tempest that wrecked all the vessels on 
the coast, and for twelve hours Smith was drifting 
about in his open boat, in momentary expectation 
of sinking, until he was cast upon the oozy isle of 
*' Charowne," where the fowlers picked him up half 
dead with water, cold, and hunger, and he got to 
Rochelle, where he made complaint to the Judge of 
Admiralty. Here he learned that the rich prize had 
been wrecked in the storm and the captain and half 
the crew drowned. But from the wreck of this great 
prize thirty-six thousand crowns' worth of jewels 
came ashore. For his share in this Smith put in 
his claim with the English ambassador at Bordeaux. 
The Captain was hospitably treated by the French- 
men. He met there his old friend Master Cramp- 
ton, and he says: "I was more beholden to the 
Frenchmen that escaped drowning in the man-of- 
war, Madam Chanoyes of Rotchell, and the lawyers 
of Burdeaux, than all the rest of my countrymen I 
met in France." While he was waiting there to get 
justice, he saw the " arrival of the King's great 
marriage brought from Spain." This is all his 
reference to the arrival of Anne of Austria, eldest 
daughter of Philip III., who had been betrothed to 
Louis XIII. in 161 2, one of the double Spanish mar- 
riages which made such a commotion in France. 

Leaving his business in France unsettled (forever), 
Smith returned to Plymouth, to find his reputation 
covered with infamy and his clothes, books, and 
arms divided among the mutineers of his boat. The 
chiefest of these he *' laid by the heels," as usual, 
and the others confessed and told the singular tale 
we have outlined. It needs no comment, except 



262 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 36 

that Smith had a facility for unlucky adventures 
unequaled among the uneasy spirits of his age. Yet 
he was as buoyant as a cork, and emerged from 
every disaster with more enthusiasm for himself 
and for new ventures. Among the many glowing 
tributes to himself in verse that Smith prints with 
this description is one signed by a soldier, Edw. 
Robinson, which begins: 

'* Oft thou hast led, when I brought up the Rere, 
In bloody wars where thousands have been slaine." 

This common soldier, who cannot help breaking 
out in poetry when he thinks of Smith, is made to 
say that Smith was his captain " in the fierce wars 
of Transylvania," and he apostrophizes him: 

" Thou that to passe the worlds foure parts dost deeme 
No more, than t'were to goe to bed or drinke, 
And all thou yet hast done thou dost esteeme 
As nothing. 

" For mee: I not commend but much admire 
Thy England yet unknown to passers by-her, 
For it will praise itself e in spight of me: 
Thou. it. it, thou, to all posteritie." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

NEW England's trials. 

SMITH was not cast down by his reverses. No 
sooner had he laid his latest betrayers by the 
heels than he set himself resolutely to obtain money 
and means for establishing a colony in New Eng- 
land, and to this project and the cultivation in 
England of interest in New England he devoted 
the rest of his life. 

His Map and Description of New England was 
published in 1616, and he became a colporteur of 
this, beseeching everywhere a hearing for his noble 
scheme. It might have been in 16 17, while Poca- 
hontas was about to sail for Virginia, or perhaps 
after her death, that he was again in Plymouth, 
provided with three good ships, but wind-bound for 
three months, so that the season being past, his de- 
sign was frustrated, and his vessels, without him, 
made a fishing expedition to Newfoundland. 

It must have been in the summer of this year 
that he was at Plymouth with divers of his personal 
friends, and only a hundred pounds among them 
all. He had acquainted the nobility with his proj- 
ects, and was afraid to see the Prince Royal before 
he had accomplished anything, " but their gresX 
promises were nothing but air to prepare the voyage 
against the next year." He spent that summer in 
the west of England, visiting " Bristol, Exeter, Bas- 
table, Bodman, Perin, Foy, Milborow, Saltash, Dart- 



264 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [vEt. 43 

mouth, Absom, Pattnesse, and the most of the gentry 
in Cornwall and Devonshire, giving them books 
and maps," and inciting them to help his enter- 
prise. 

So well did he succeed, he says, that they prom- 
ised him twenty sail of ships to go with him the 
next year, and to pay him for his pains and former 
losses. The western commissioners, in behalf of 
the company, contracted with him, under indented 
articles, " to be admiral of that country during my 
life, and in the renewing of the letters-patent so to 
be nominated;" half the profits of the enterprise 
to be theirs, and half to go to Smith and his com- 
panions. 

Nothing seems to have come out of this promis- 
ing induction except the title of " Admiral of New 
England," which Smith straightway assumed and 
wore all his life, styling himself on the title-page of 
everything he printed, " Sometime Governor of 
Virginia and Admiral of New England." As the 
generous Captain had before this time assumed this 
title, the failure of the contract could not much 
annoy him. He had about as good right to take 
the sounding name of Admiral as merchants of the 
west of England had to propose to give it to him. 

The years wore away, and Smith was beseeching 
aid, republishing his works, which grew into new 
forms with each issue, and no doubt making him- 
self a bore wherever he was known. The first 
edition of " New England's Trials" — by which he 
meant the various trials and attempts to settle New 
England — was published in 1620. It was to some 
extent a repetition of his " Description " of 1616. In 
it he made no reference to Pocahontas. But in the 
edition of 1622, which is dedicated to Charles, 



i622] A^£IV ENGLAND'S TklALS. 265 

Prince of Wales, and considerably enlarged, he 
drops into this remark about his experience at 
Jamestown: "It is true in our greatest extremitie 
they shot me, slue three of my men, and by the 
folly of them that fled tooke me prisoner; yet God 
made Pocahontas the king's daughter the meanes 
to deliver me: and thereby taught me to know their 
treacheries to preserve the rest. [This is evidently 
an allusion to the warning Pocahontas gave him at 
Werowocomoco.] It was also my chance in single 
combat to take the king of Paspahegh prisoner, and 
by keeping him, forced his subjects to work in 
chains till I made all the country pay contribution, 
having little else whereon to live." 

This was written after he had heard of the hor- 
rible massacre, of 1622 at Jamestown, and he cannot 
resist the temptation to draw a contrast between 
the present and his own management. He explains 
that the Indians did not kill the English because 
they were Christians, but to get their weapons 
and commodities. How different it was when 
he was in Virginia. " I kept that country with but 
38, and had not to eat but what we had from the 
savages. When I had ten men able to go abroad, 
our commonwealth was very strong: with such a 
number I ranged that unknown country 14 weeks: 
I had but 18 to subdue them all." This is better 
than Sir John Falstaff. But he goes on: "When I 
first went to those desperate designes it cost me 
many a forgotten pound to hire men to go, and 
procrastination caused more run away than went." 
" Twise in that time I was President." [It will be 
remembered that about the close of his first year he 
gave up the command, for form's sake, to Capt. 
Martin, for three hours, and then took it again.] 



266 CAPTAIiV JOHN SHI I Til. [^t. 43-44 

*' To range this country of New England in like 
manner, I had but eight, as is said, and amongst 
their bruite conditions I met many of their silly 
encounters, and without any hurt, God be thanked." 
The valiant Captain had come by this time to re- 
gard himself as the inventor and discoverer of Vir- 
ginia and New England, which were explored and 
settled at the cost of his private pocket, and which 
he is not ashamed to say cannot fare well in his 
absence. Smith, with all his good opinion of him- 
self, could not have imagined how delicious his 
character would be to readers in after-times. As 
he goes on he warms up: "Thus you may see 
plainly the yearly success from New England, by 
Virginia, which hath been so costly to this king- 
dom and so dear to me. . . . By that acquaintance 
I have with them I may call them my children [he 
spent between two and three months on the New 
England coast] for they have been my wife, my 
hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice, and total 
my best content, as indifferent to my heart as my 
left hand to my right. . . . Were there not one 
Englishman remaining I would yet begin again as 
I did at the first; not that I have any secret encour- 
agement for any I protest, more than lamentable 
experiences; for all their discoveries I can yet hear 
of are but pigs of my sowe: nor more strange to me 
than to hear one tell me he hath gone from Billin- 
gate and discovered Greenwich!" 

As to the charge that he was unfortunate, which 
we should think might have become current from 
the Captain's own narratives, he tells his maligners 
that if they had spent their time as he had done, 
they would rather believe in God than in their own 
calculations, and peradventure might have had to 



1624] NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS. 26/ 

give as bad an account of their actions. It is 
strange they should tax him before they have tried 
what he tried in Asia, Europe and America, where 
he never needed to importune for a reward, nor ever 
could learn to beg: "These sixteen years I have 
spared neither pains nor money, according to my 
ability, first to procure his majesty's letters patent, 
and a Company here to be the means to raise a com- 
pany to go with me to Virginia [this is the expedi- 
tion of 1606 in which he was without command] as 
is said: which beginning here and there cost me 
near five years work, and more than 500 pounds of 
my own estate, besides all the dangers, miseries 
and encumbrances I endured gratis, where I stayed 
till I left 500 better provided than ever I was: from 
which blessed Virgin (ere I returned) sprung the 
fortunate habitation of Somer Isles." "Ere I re- 
turned " is in Smith's best vein. The casual reader 
would certainly conclude that the Somers Isles 
were somehow due to the providence of John Smith, 
when in fact he never even heard that Gates and 
Smith were shipwrecked there till he had returned 
to England, sent home from Virginia. Neill says 
that Smith ventured J[^() in the Virginia company! 
But he does not say where he got the money. 

New England, he affirms, hath been nearly as 
chargeable to him and his friends: he never got a 
shilling but it cost him a pound. And now, when 
New England is prosperous and a certainty, "what 
think you I undertook when nothing was known, 
but that there was a vast land." These are some of 
the considerations by which he urges the company 
to fit out an expedition for him: " thus betwixt the 
spur of desire and the bridle of reason I am near 
ridden to death in a ring of despair; the reins are 



268 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 39 

in your hands, therefore I entreat you to ease 
me." 

The Admiral of New England, who since he en- 
joyed the title had had neither ship, nor sailor, nor 
rod of land, nor cubic yard of salt water under his 
command, was not successful in his several " Trials." 
And in the hodge-podge compilation from himself 
and others, which he had put together shortly after, 
— the " General Historic," he pathetically exclaims: 
''Now all these proofs and this relation, I now 
called New England's Trials. I caused two or 
three thousand of them to be printed, one thousand 
with a great many maps both of Virginia and New 
England, I presented to thirty of the chief com- 
panies in London at their Halls, desiring either 
generally or particularly (them that would) to im- 
brace it and by the use of a stock of live thousand 
pounds to ease them of the superfluity of most of 
their companies that had but strength and health 
to labor; near a year I spent to understand their 
resolutions, which was to me a greater toil and tor- 
ment, than to have been in New England about my 
business but with bread and water, and what I 
could get by my labor; but in conclusion, see- 
ing nothing would be effected I was contented 
as well with this loss of time and change as all the 
rest." 

In his " Advertisements " he says that at his own 
labor, cost, and loss he had " divulged more than 
seven thousand books and maps," in order to influ- 
ence the companies, merchants and gentlemen to 
make a plantation, but "all availed no more than 
to hew Rocks with Oister-shels." 

His suggestions about colonizing were always 
sensible. But we can imagine the group of mer- 



i522] NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS. 269 

chants in Cheapside gradually dissolving as Smith 
hove in sight with his maps and demonstrations. 

In 1618, Smith addressed a letter directly to Lord 
Bacon, to which there seems to have been no an- 
swer. The body of it was a condensation of what 
he had repeatedly written about New England, and 
the advantage to England of occupying the fisher- 
ies. " This nineteen years," he writes, " I have en- 
countered no few dangers to learn what here I write 
in these few leaves: . . . their fruits I am cer- 
tain may bring both wealth and honor for a crown 
and a kingdom to his majesty's posterity." With 
5000 pounds he will undertake to establish a colony, 
and he asks of his Majesty a pinnace to lodge his 
men and defend the coast for a few months, until 
the colony gets settled. Notwithstanding his dis- 
appointments and losses, he is still patriotic, and 
offers his experience to his country: " Should I pre- 
sent it to the Biskayners, French and Hollanders, 
they have made me large offers. But nature doth 
bind me thus to beg at home, whom strangers have 
pleased to create a commander abroad. . . 
Though I can promise no mines of gold, the Holland- 
ers are an example of my project, whose endeavors 
by fishing cannot be suppressed by all the King of 
Spain's golden powers. Worth is more than wealth, 
and industrious subjects are more to a kingdom 
than gold. And this is so certain a course to get 
both as I think was never propounded to any state 
for so small a charge, seeing I can prove it, both by 
example, reason and experience." 

Smith's maxims were excellent, his notions of set- 
tling New England were sound and sensible, and if 
writing could have put him in command of New 
England, there would have been no room for the 



2/0 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 43-45 

Puritans. He addressed letter after letter to the 
companies of Virginia and Plymouth, giving them 
distinctly to understand that they were losing time 
by not availing themselves of his services and his 
project. After the Virginia massacre, he offered to 
undertake to drive the savages out of their country 
with a hundred soldiers and thirty sailors. He 
heard that most of the company liked exceedingly 
well the notion, but no reply came to his overture. 

He laments the imbecility in the conduct of the 
new plantations. At first, he says, it was feared the 
Spaniards would invade the plantations or the Eng- 
lish Papists dissolve them: but neither the councils 
of Spain nor the Papists could have desired a better 
course to ruin the plantations than have been pur- 
sued; "it seems God is angry to see Virginia in 
hands so strange where nothing but murder and 
indiscretion contends for the victory." 

In his letters to the company and to the King's 
commissions for the reformation of Virginia, Smith 
invariably reproduces his own exploits, until we can 
imagine every person in London, who could read, 
was sick of the story. He reminds them of his un- 
requited services: "in neither of those two coun- 
tries have I one foot of land, nor the very house I 
builded, nor the ground I digged with my own 
hands, nor ever any content or satisfaction at all, 
and though I see ordinarily those two countries 
shared before me by them that neither have them 
nor knows them, but by my descriptions. . . . 
For the books and maps I have made, I will thank 
him that will show me so much for so little recom- 
pense, and bear with their errors till I have done 
better. For the materials in them I cannot deny, 
but am ready to affirm them both there and here, 



i624] ^E^V ENGLAND'S TRIALS, 27 1 

upon such ground as I have propounded, which is 
to have but fifteen hundred men to subdue again 
the Salvages, fortify the country, discover that yet 
unknown, and both defend and feed their colony." 

There is no record that these various petitions 
and letters of advice were received by the compa- 
nies, but Smith prints them in his History, and 
gives also seven questions propounded to him by 
the commissioners, with his replies; in which he 
clearly states the cause of the disasters in the colo- 
nies, and proposes wise and statesman-like reme- 
dies. He insists upon industry and good conduct: 
" to rectify a commonwealth with debauched people 
is impossible, and no wise man would throw him- 
self into such society, that intends honestly, and 
knows what he understands, for there is no country 
to pillage, as the Romans found ; all you expect 
from thence must be by labour." 

Smith was no friend to tobacco, and although he 
favored the production to a certain limit as a means 
of profit, it is interesting to note his true prophecy 
that it would ultimately be a demoralizing product. 
He often proposes the restriction of its cultivation, 
and speaks with contempt of "our men rooting in 
the ground about tobacco like swine." The colony 
would have been much better off " had they not so 
much doated on their tobacco, on whose fumish 
foundation there is small stability." 

So long as he lived, Smith kept himself informed 
of the progress of adventure and settlement in the 
New World, reading all relations and eagerly ques- 
tioning all voyagers, and transferring their accounts 
to his own History, which became a confused patch- 
work of other men's exploits and his own reminis- 
cences and reflections. He always regards the new 



272 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [iEt. 43-45 

plantations as somehow his own, and made in the 
light of his advice; and their mischances are usually- 
due to the neglect of his counsel. He relates in this 
volume the story of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the 
years following, and of the settlement of the Somers 
Isles, making himself appear as a kind of Provi- 
dence over the New World. 

Out of his various and repetitious writings might 
be compiled quite a hand-book of maxims and wise 
saws. Yet all had in steady view one purpose — to 
excite interest in his favorite projects, to shame the 
laggards of England out of their idleness, and to 
give himself honorable employment and authority 
in the building up of a new empire. "Who can 
desire," he exclaims, " more content that hath small 
means, or but only his merit to advance his for- 
tunes, than to tread and plant that ground he hath 
purchased by the hazard of his life; if he have but 
the taste of virtue and magnanimity, what to such a 
mind can be more pleasant than planting and build- 
ing a foundation for his posterity, got from the rude 
earth by God's blessing and his own industry with- 
out prejudice to any; if he have any grace of faith 
or zeal in Religion, what can be more healthful to 
any or more agreeable to God than to convert those 
poor salvages to know Christ and humanity, whose 
labours and discretion will triply requite any charge 
and pain." 

" Then who would live at home idly," he exhorts 
his countrymen, " or think in himself any worth to 
live, only to eat, drink and sleep, and so die; or by 
consuming that carelessly his friends got worthily, 
or by using that miserably that maintained virtue 
honestly, or for being descended nobly, or pine with 
the vain vaunt of great kindred in penury, or to 



1624] NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS. 273 

maintain a silly show of bravery, toil out thy heart, 
soul and time basely; by shifts, tricks, cards and 
dice, or by relating news of other men's actions, 
sharke here and there for a dinner or supper, de- 
ceive thy friends by fair promises and dissimula- 
tions, in borrowing when thou never meanest to 
pay, offend the laws, surfeit with excess, burden 
thy country, abuse thyself, despair in want, and then 
cozen thy kindred, yea, even thy own brother, and 
wish thy parent's death (I will not say damnation), 
to have their estates, though thou seest what honors 
and rewards the world yet hath for them that will 
seek them and worthily deserve them." 

" I would be sorry to offend, or that any should 
mistake my honest meaning: for I wish good to all, 
hurt to none; but rich men for the most part are 
grown to that dotage through their pride in their 
wealth, as though there were no accident could end 
it or their life." 

" And what hellish care do such take to make it 
their own misery and their countrie's spoil, espe- 
cially when there is such need of their employment, 
drawing by all manner of inventions from the 
Prince and his honest subjects, even the vital spirits 
of their powers and estates; as if their bags or brags 
were so powerful a defense, the malicious could not 
assault them, when they are the only bait to cause 
us not only to be assaulted, but betrayed and 
smothered in our own security ere we will prevent 
it." 

And he adds this good advice to those who main- 
tain their children in wantonness till they grow to 
be the masters: " Let this lamentable example [the 
ruin of Constantinople] remember you that are rich 
(seeing there are such great thieves in the world to 



274 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 45 

rob you) not grudge to lend some proportion to 
breed them that have little, yet willing to learn how 
to defend you, for it is too late when the deed is 
done." 

No motive of action did Smith omit in his im- 
portunity, for "Religion above all things should 
move us, especially the clergy, if we are religious." 
" Honor might move the gentry, the valiant and in- 
dustrious, and the hope and assurance of wealth all, 
if we were that we would seem and be accounted; 
or be we so far inferior to other nations, or our 
spirits so far dejected from our ancient predeces- 
sors, or our minds so upon spoil, piracy and 
such villainy, as to serve the Portugall, Spaniard, 
Dutch, French or Turke (as to the cost of Europe 
too many do), rather than our own God, our king, 
our country, and ourselves: excusing our idleness 
and our base complaints by want of employment, 
when here is such choice of all sorts, and for all de- 
grees, in the planting and discovering these North 
parts of America." 

It was all in vain so far as Smith's fortunes were 
concerned. The planting and subjection of New 
England went on, and Smith had no part in it 
except to describe it. The Brownists, the Anabap- 
tists, the Papists, the Puritans, the Separatists, and 
"such factious Humorists," were taking possession 
of the land that Smith claimed to have " discovered," 
and in which he had no foothold. Failing to get 
employment anywhere, he petitioned the Virginia 
Company for a reward out of the treasury in Lon- 
don or the profits in Virginia. 

At one of the hot discussions in 1623 preceding 
the dissolution of the Virginia Company by the 
revocation of their charter, Smith was present, and 



i6i4-2o] NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS. 275 

said that he hoped for his time spent in Virginia he 
should receive that year a good quantity of tobacco. 
The charter was revoked in 1624 after many violent 
scenes, and King James was glad to be rid of what 
he called " a seminary for a seditious parliament." 
The company had made use of lotteries to raise 
funds, and upon their disuse, in 162 1, Smith pro- 
posed to the company to compile for its benefit a 
general history. This he did, but it does not appear 
that the company took any action on his proposal. 
At one time he had been named, with three others, 
as a fit person for secretary, on the removal of Mr. 
Pory, but as only three could be balloted for, his 
name was left out. He was, however, commended 
as entirely competent. 

After the dissolution of the companies, and the 
granting of new letters-patent to a company of 
some twenty noblemen, there seems to have been a 
project for dividing up the country by lot. Smith 
says: "All this they divided in twenty parts, for 
which they cast lots, but no lot for me but Smith's 
Isles, which are a many of barren rocks, the most 
overgrown with shrubs, and sharp whins, you can 
hardly pass them; without either grass or wood, 
but three or four short shrubby old cedars." 

The plan was not carried out, and Smith never 
became lord of even these barren rocks, the Isles of 
Shoals. That he visited them when he sailed along 
the coast is probable, though he never speaks of 
doing so. In the Virginia waters he had left a 
cluster of islands bearing his name also. 

In the Captain's " True Travels," published in 
1630, is a summary of the condition of coloniza- 
tion in New England from Smith's voyage thence 
till the settlement of Plymouth in 1620, which 



2/6 CAPTAm JOHN SMITH. [1614-2O' 

makes an appropriate close to our review of this 
period: 

"When I first went to the North part of Virginia, 
where the Westerly Colony had been planted, it had dis- 
solved itself within a year, and there was not one Christian 
in all the land. I was set forth at the sole charge of four 
merchants of London ; the Country being then reputed 
by your westerlings a most rocky, barren, desolate desart ; 
but the good return I brought from thence, with the maps 
and relations of the Country, which I made so manifest, 
some of them did believe me, and they were well em- 
braced, both by the Londoners, and Westerlings, for 
whom I had promised to undertake it, thinking to have 
joyned them all together, but that might well have been 
a work for Hercules. Betwixt them long there was much 
contention : the Londoners indeed went bravely forward : 
but in three or four years I and my friends consumed 
many hundred pounds amongst the Plimothians, who only 
fed me but with delays, promises, and excuses, but no 
performance of anything to any purpose. In the interim, 
many particular ships went thither, and finding my rela- 
tions true, and that I had not taken that I brought home 
from the French men, as had been reported : yet further 
for my pains to discredit me, and my calling it New 
England, they obscured it, and shadowed it, with the title 
of Canada, till at my humble suit, it pleased our most 
Royal King Charles, whom God long keep, bless and pre- 
serve, then Prince of Wales, to confirm it with my map 
and book, by the title of New England ; the gain thence 
returning did make the fame thereof so increase that 
thirty, forty or fifty sail went yearly only to trade and fish ; 
but nothing would be done for a plantation, till about 
some hundred of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam 
and Leyden went to New Plimouth, whose humorous 
ignorances, caused them for more than a year, to endure 
a wonderful deal of misery, with an infinite patience ; say- 
ing my books and maps were much better cheap to teach 



I6I4-20] NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS. 277 

them than myself : many others have used the like good 
husbandry that have payed soundly in trying their self- 
willed conclusions ; but those in time doing well, diverse 
others have in small handfulls undertaken to go there, to 
be several Lords and Kings of themselves, but most van- 
ished to nothing." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

WRITINGS, LATER YEARS. 

IF Smith had not been an author, his exploits 
would have occupied a small space in the litera- 
ture of his times. But by his unwearied narrations 
he impressed his image in gigantic features on 
our plastic continent. If he had been silent, he 
would have had something less than justice; as it 
is, he has been permitted to greatly exaggerate his 
relations to the New World. It is only by noting 
the comparative silence of his contemporaries and 
by winnowing his own statements that we can 
appreciate his true position. 

For twenty years he was a voluminous writer, 
working off his superfluous energy in setting forth 
his adventures in new forms. Most of his writings 
are repetitions and recastings of the old material, 
with such reflections as occur to him from time to 
time. He seldom writes a book, or a tract, without 
beginning it or working into it a resume of his life. 
The only exception to this is his "Sea Grammar." 
In 1626 he published "An Accidence or the Pathway 
to Experience, necessary to all Young Seamen," 
and in 1627 "A Sea Grammar, with the plain Expo- 
sition of Smith's Accidence for Young Seamen, 
enlarged." This is a technical work, and strictly 
confined to the building, rigging, and managing of 
a ship. He was also engaged at the time of his 
death upon a " History of the Sea," which never 



WRITINGS— LATER YEARS. 279 

saw the light. He was evidently fond of the sea, 
and we may say the title of Admiral came naturally 
to him, since he used it in the title-page to his 
"Description of New England," published in 1616, 
although it was not till 161 7 that the commissioners 
at Plymouth agreed to bestow upon him the title 
of "Admiral of that country." 

In 1630 he published " The True Travels, Adven- 
tures and Observations of Captain John Smith, in 
Europe, Asia, Affrica and America, from 1593 to 
1629. Together with a Continuation of his Gen- 
eral History of Virginia, Summer Isles, New Eng- 
land, and their proceedings since 1624 to this pres- 
ent 1629: as also of the new Plantations of the great 
River of the Amazons, the Isles of St. Christopher, 
Mevis and Barbadoes in the West Indies." In the 
dedication to William, Earl of Pembroke, and Rob- 
ert, Earl of Lindsay, he says it was written at the 
request of Sir Robert Cotton, the learned antiqua- 
rian, and he the more willingly satisfies this noble 
desire because, as he says, *'they have acted my 
fatal tragedies on the stage, and racked my rela- 
tions at their pleasure. To prevent, therefore, all 
future misprisions, I have compiled this true dis- 
course. Envy hath taxed me to have writ too 
much, and done too little; but that such should 
know how little I esteem them, I have writ this 
more for the satisfaction of my friends, and all 
generous and well-disposed readers: To speak only 
of myself were intolerable ingratitude: because, 
having had many co-partners with me, I cannot 
make a Monument for myself, and leave them un- 
buried in the fields, whose lives begot me the title 
of Soldier, for as they were companions with me in 
my dangers, so shall they be partakers with me in 



280 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 50 

this Tombe." In the same dedication he spoke of 
his " Sea Grammar" caused to be printed by his 
worthy friend Sir Samuel Saltonstall. 

This volume, like all others Smith published, is 
accompanied by a great number of swollen pan- 
egyrics in verse, showing that the writers had been 
favored with the perusal of the volume before it 
was published. Valor, piety, virtue, learning, wit, 
are by them ascribed to the "great Smith," who is 
easily the wonder and paragon of his age. All of 
them are stuffed with the affected conceits fashion- 
able at the time. One of the most pedantic of 
these was addressed to him by Samuel Purchas 
when the " General Historie" was written. 

The portrait of Smith which occupies a corner in 
the Map of Virginia has in the oval the date, '' ^ta 
37, hP 1616," and round the rim the inscription: 
" Portraictuer of Captaine John Smith, Admirall of 
New England," and under it these lines engraved: 

" These are the Lines that show thy face: but those 
That show thy Grace and Glory brighter bee: 
Thy Faire-Discoveries and Fowle-Overthrowes 
Of Salvages, much Civilized by thee 
Best shew thy Spirit; and to it Glory Wyn; 
So, thou art Brasse without, but Golde within. 
If so, in Brasse (too soft smiths Acts to beare) 
I fix thy Fame to make Brasse Steele outweare. 

Thine as thou art Virtues 
John Davies, Heref." 

In this engraving Smith is clad in armor, with a 
high starched collar, and full beard and mustache 
formally cut. His right hand rests on his hip, and 
his left grasps the handle of his sword. The face 
is open and pleasing and full of decision, 



1630-31] WRITINGS— LATER YEARS. 28 1 

This " true discourse" contains the wild romance 
with which this volume opens, and is pieced out 
with recapitulations of his former writings and ex- 
ploits, compilations from others' relations, and gen- 
eral comments. We have given from it the story of 
his early life, because there is absolutely no other 
account of that part of his career. We may assume 
that up to his going to Virginia he did lead a life 
of reckless adventure and hardship, often in want 
of a decent suit of clothes and of "regular meals." 
That he took some part in the wars in Hungary is 
probable, notwithstanding his romancing narrative, 
and he may have been captured by the Turks. But 
his account of the wars there, and of the political 
complications, we suspect are cribbed from the old 
chronicles, probably from the Italian, while his 
vague descriptions of the lands and people in Tur- 
key and " Tartaria" are evidently taken from the 
narratives of other travelers. It seems to me that 
the whole of his story of his oriental captivity lacks 
the note of personal experience. If it were not for 
the " patent" of Sigismund (which is only produced 
and certified twenty years after it is dated), the 
whole Transylvania legend would appear entirely 
apocryphal. 

The " True Travels" close with a discourse upon 
the bad life, qualities, and conditions of pirates. 
The most ancient of these was one Collis, "who 
most refreshed himself upon the coast of Wales, 
and Clinton and Pursser, his companions, who grew 
famous till Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory 
hanged them at Wapping. The misery of a Pirate 
(although many are as sufficient seaman as any) 
yet in regard of his superfluity, you shall find it 
guch, that any wise man would rather live amongst 



282 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^Et. 50-51 

wild beasts, than them; therefore let all unadvised 
persons take heed how they entertain that quality; 
and I could wish merchants, gentlemen, and all set- 
ters-forth of ships not to be sparing of a competent 
pay, nor true payment; for neither soldiers nor sea- 
men can live without means; but necessity will force 
them to steal, and when they are once entered into 
that trade they are hardly reclaimed." 

Smith complains that the play-writers had ap- 
propriated his adventures, but does not say that 
his own character had been put upon the stage. In 
Ben Jonson's "Staple of News," played in 1625, 
there is a reference to Pocahontas in the dialogue 
that occurs between Pick-lock and Pennyboy 
Canter: 

Pick. — A tavern's unfit too for a princess. 

P. Ca7it. — No, I have known a Princess and a great one. 

Come forth of a tavern. 
Pick. — Not go in Sir, though, 
P. Cant. — She must go in, if she came forth. 

The blessed Pocahontas, as the historian calls 
her, 

And great King's daughter of Virginia, 

Hath been in womb of tavern. 

The last work of our author was published in 
163 1, the year of his death. Its full title very well 
describes the contents: "Advertisements for the 
Unexperienced Planters of New England, or any- 
where. Or, the Pathway to Experience to erect a 
Plantation. With the yearly proceedings of this 
country in fishing and planting since the year 1614 
to the year 1630, and their present estate. Also, 
how to prevent the greatest inconvenience by their 
proceedings in Virginia, and other plantations by 



1630-31] WRITINGS— LATER YEARS. 283 

approved examples. With the countries armes, a 
description of the coast, harbours, habitations, land- 
marks, latitude and longitude: with the map allowed 
by our Royall King Charles." 

Smith had become a trifle cynical in regard to 
the newsmongers of the day, and quaintly remarks 
in his address to the reader: " Apelles by the pro- 
portion of a foot could make the whole proportion 
of a man: were he now living, he might go to 
school, for now thousands can by opinion propor- 
tion kingdoms, cities and lordships that never durst 
adventure to see them. Malignancy I expect from 
these, have lived 10 or 12 years in those actions, 
and return as wise as they went, claiming time and 
experience for their tutor, that can neither shift 
Sun nor moon, nor say their compass, yet will tell 
you of more than all the world betwixt the Ex- 
change, Paul's and Westminster .... and tell as 
well what all England is by seeing but Mitford 
Haven as what Apelles was by the picture of his 
great toe." 

This is one of Smith's most characteristic pro- 
ductions. Its material is ill-arranged, and much of 
it is obscurely written; it runs backward and for- 
ward along his life, refers constantly to his former 
works and repeats them, complains of the want of 
appreciation of his services, and makes himself the 
center of all the colonizing exploits of the age. Yet 
it is interspersed with strokes of humor and obser- 
vations full of good sense. 

It opens with the airy remark: "The wars in 
Europe, Asia and Africa, taught me how to subdue 
the wild savages in Virginia and New England." 
He never did subdue the wild savages in New Eng- 
land, and he never was in any war in Africa, nor in 



284 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 50-51 

Asia, unless we call his piratical cruising in the 
Mediterranean "wars in Asia." 

As a Church of England man, Smith is not well 
pleased with the occupation of New England by 
the Puritans, Brownists, and such " factious humor- 
ists" as settled at New Plymouth, although he 
acknowledges the wonderful patience with which, 
in their ignorance and willfulness, they have en- 
dured losses and extremities; but he hopes better 
things of the gentlemen who went in 1629 to supply 
Endicott at Salem, and were followed the next year 
by Winthrop. All these adventurers have, he says, 
made use of his ''aged endeavors." It seems pre- 
sumptuous in them to try to get on with his maps 
and descriptions and without him. They probably 
had never heard, except in the title-pages of his 
works, that he was ''Admiral of New England." 

Even as late as this time many supposed New 
England to be an island, but Smith again asserts, 
what he had always maintained — that it was a part 
of the continent. The expedition of Winthrop was 
scattered by a storm, and reached Salem with the 
loss of threescore dead and many sick, to find as 
many of the colony dead, and all disconsolate. Of 
the discouraged among them who returned to Eng- 
land Smith says: " Some could not endure the name 
of a bishop, others not the sight of a cross or sur- 
plice, others by no means the book of common 
prayer. This absolute crew, only of the Elect, hold- 
ing all (but such as themselves) reprobates and 
castaways, now made more haste to return to Babel, 
as they termed England, than stay to enjoy the land 
they called Canaan." Somewhat they must say to 
excuse themselves. Therefore "some say they 
could see no timbers of ten foot diameter; some 



WRITINGS— LATER YEARS. 285 

the country is all wood; others they drained all the 
springs and ponds dry, yet like to famish for want 
of fresh water; some of the danger of the ratell- 
snake." To compel all the Indians to furnish them 
corn without using them cruelly they say is impos- 
sible. Yet this "impossible," Smith says, he ac- 
complished in Virginia, and offers to undertake in 
New England, with one hundred and fifty men to 
get corn, fortify the country, and " discover them 
more land than they all yet know." 

This homily ends — and it is the last published 
sentence of the "great Smith"^with this good ad- 
vice to the New England colonists: 

" Lastly, remember as faction, pride, and security 
produces nothing but confusion, misery and disso- 
lution; so the contraries well practised will in short 
time make you happy, and the most admired people 
of all our plantations for your time in the world. 

"John Smith writ this with his owne hand." 

The extent to which Smith retouched his narra- 
tions, as they grew in his imagination, in his many 
reproductions of them, has been referred to, and 
illustrated by previous quotations. An amusing 
instance of his care and ingenuity is furnished by 
the interpolation of Pocahontas into his stories 
after 1623. In his "General Historic" of 1624 he 
adopts, for the account of his career in Virginia, 
the narratives in the Oxford tract of 1612, which he 
had supervised. We have seen how he interpolated 
the wonderful story of his rescue by the Indian 
child. Some of his other insertions of her name, to 
bring all the narrative up to that level, are curious. 
The following passages from the " Oxford Tract" 
contain in italics the words inserted when they 
were transferred to the "General Historic": 



286 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 50-51 

"So revived their dead spirits [especially the love of 
Pocahuntas) as all anxious fears were abandoned." 

" Part always they brought him as presents from 
their king, or Pocahuntas.'' 

In the account of the " masques" of girls to enter- 
tain Smith at Werowocomoco we read: 

^''^uX. presently Pocahu?itas came, wishing him to kill 
her if any hurt were intended, and the beholders, which 
were women and children, satisfied the Captain 
there was no such matter." 

In the account of Wyffin's bringing the news of 
Scrivener's drowning, when Wyffin was lodged a 
night with Powhatan, we read: 

" He did assure himself some mischief was in- 
tended. Pocahontas hid him for a time, and sent them 
who pursued hini the clean contrary luay to seek him; but 
by her means and extraordinary bribes and much 
trouble in three days' travel, at length he found us 
in the middest of these turmoyles." 

The affecting story of the visit and warning from 
Pocahontas in the night, when she appeared with 
"tears running down her cheeks," is not in the first 
narration in the Oxford Tract, but is inserted in the 
narrative in the "General Historic." Indeed, the 
first account would by its terms exclude the later 
one. It is all contained in these few lines: 

" But our barge being left by the ebb, caused us to staie 
till the midnight tide carried us safe aboord, having spent 
that half night with such mirth as though we never had 
suspected or intended anything, we left the Dutchmen to 
build, Brinton to kill foule for Powhatan (as by his mes- 
sengers he importunately desired), and left directions with 
our men to give Powhatan all the content they could, that 
we might enjoy his company on our return from Pa- 
maunke." 

It should be added, however, that there is an 



1630-31] WRITINGS— LATER YEARS. 28/ 

allusion to some warning by Pocahontas in the last 
chapter of the " Oxford Tract." But the full story 
of the night visit and the streaming tears as we 
have given it seems without doubt to have been 
elaborated from very slight materials. And the 
subsequent insertion of the name of Pocahontas — 
of which we have given examples above — into old 
accounts that had no allusion to her, adds new and 
strong presumptions to the belief that Smith in- 
vented what is known as the " Pocahontas legend." 

As a mere literary criticism on Smith's writings, 
it would appear that he had a habit of transferring 
to his own career notable incidents and adventures 
of which he had read, and this is somewhat damag- 
ing to an estimate of his originality. His wonder- 
ful system of telegraphy by means of torches, which 
he says he put in practice at the siege of Olympack, 
and which he describes as if it were his own inven- 
tion, he had doubtless read in Polybius, and it 
seemed a good thing to introduce into his narra- 
tive. 

He was (it must also be noted) the second white 
man whose life was saved by an Indian princess in 
America, who subsequently warned her favorite of 
a plot to kill him. In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaes 
landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, and made a disas- 
trous expedition into the interior. Among the 
Spaniards who were missing as a result of this ex- 
cursion was a soldier named Juan Ortiz. When De 
Soto marched into the same country in 1539 he en- 
countered this soldier, who had been held in cap- 
tivity by the Indians and had learned their lan- 
guage. The story that Ortiz told was this: He was 
taken prisoner by the chief Ucita, bound hand and 
foot, and stretched upon a scaffold to be roasted, 



288 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 52 

when, just as the flames were seizing him, a daugh- 
ter of the chief interposed in his behalf, and upon 
her prayers Ucita spared the life of the prisoner. 
Three years afterward, when there was danger that 
Ortiz would be sacrificed to appease the devil, the 
princess came to him, warned him of his danger, 
and led him secretly and alone in the night to the 
camp of a chieftain who protected him. 

This narrative was in print before Smith wrote, 
and as he was fond of such adventures he may have 
read it. The incidents are curiously parallel. And 
all the comment needed upon it is that Smith seems 
to have been peculiarly subject to such coinci- 
dences. 

Our author's selection of a coat of arms, the dis- 
tinguishing feature of which was " three Turks' 
heads," showed little more originality. It was a 
common device before his day: on many coats of 
arms of the Middle Ages and later appear " three 
Saracens' heads," or " three Moors' heads" — prob- 
ably most of them had their origin in the Crusades. 
Smith's patent to use this charge, which he pro- 
duced from Sigismund, was dated 1603, but the cer- 
tificate appended to it by the Garter King at Arms, 
certifying that it was recorded in the register and 
ofiice of the heralds, is dated 1625. Whether Smith 
used it before this latter date we are not told.* We 
do not know why he had not as good right to 
assume it as anybody. 

* Burke's " Encyclopedia of Heraldry" gives it as granted to 
Capt. John Smith, of the Smiths of Crudley, Co. Lancaster, in 
1623, and describes it: "Vert, a chev. gu. betw. three Turks' 
heads couped ppr. turbaned or. Crest — an Ostrich or, holding 
in the mouth a horseshoe or." 



CHAPTER XX. 

DEATH AND CHARACTER. 

HARDSHIP and disappointment made our hero 
prematurely old, but could not conquer his in- 
domitable spirit. The disastrous voyage of June, 
1615, when he fell into the hands of the French, is 
spoken of by the Council for New England in 1622 
as " the ruin of that poor gentleman. Captain Smith, 
who was detained prisoner by them, and forced to 
suffer many extremities before he got free of his 
troubles;" but he did not know that he was ruined, 
and did not for a moment relax his efforts to pro- 
mote colonization and obtain a command, nor re- 
linquish his superintendence of the Western Con- 
tinent. 

His last days were evidently passed in a struggle 
for existence, which was not so bitter to him as it 
might have been to another man, for he was sus- 
tained by ever-elating '' great expectations." That 
he was pinched for means of living, there is no 
doubt. In 1623 he issued a prospectus of his 
*' General Historic," in which he said: "These ob- 
servations are all I have for the expenses of a 
thousand pounds and the loss of eighteen years' 
time, besides all the travels, dangers, miseries and 
incumbrances for my countries good, I have en- 
dured gratis: . . . this is composed in less than 
eighty sheets, besides the three maps, which will 
stand me near in a hundred pounds, which sum I 



290 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 52 

cannot disburse: nor shall the stationers have the 
copy for nothing, I therefore, humbly entreat your 
Honour, either to adventure, or give me what you 
please towards the impression, and I will be both 
accountable and thankful." 

He had come before he was fifty to regard him- 
self as an old man, and to speak of his " aged en- 
deavors." Where and how he lived in his later 
years, and with what surroundings and under what 
circumstances he died, there is no record. That he 
had no settled home, and was in mean lodgings at 
the last, may be reasonably inferred. There is a 
manuscript note on the fly-leaf of one of the original 
editions of "The Map of Virginia"* (Oxford, 1612), 
in ancient chirography, but which from its refer- 
ence to Fuller could not have been written until 
more than thirty years after Smith's death. It 
says: "When he was old he lived in London poor 
but kept up his spirits with the commemoration of 
his former actions and bravery. He was buried in 
St. Sepulcher's Church, as Fuller tells us, who has 
given us a line of his Ranting Epitaph." 

That seems to have been the tradition of the man, 
buoyantly supporting himself in the commemora- 
tion of his own achievements. To the end his in- 
dustrious and hopeful spirit sustained him, and in 
the last year of his life he was toiling on another 
compilation, and promised his readers a variety of 
actions and memorable observations which they 
shall " find with admiration in my History of the 
Sea, if God be pleased I live to finish it." 

He died on the 21st of June, 163 1, and the same 
day made his last will, to which he appended his. 

* In the library of S. L. M. Barlow, Esq., of New York. 



i63i] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 2<)\ 

mark, as he seems to have been too feeble to 
write his name. In this he describes himself as 
'' Captain John Smith of the parish of St. Sepulcher's 
London Esquior." He commends his soul ^'into 
the hands of Almighty God, my maker, hoping 
through the merits of Christ Jesus my Redeemer to 
receive full remission of all my sins and to inherit 
a place in the everlasting kingdom;" his body he 
commits to the earth whence it came; and " of such 
worldly goods whereof it hath pleased God in his 
mercy to make me an unworthy receiver," he be- 
queathes: first, to Thomas Packer, Esq., one of his 
Majesty's clerks of the Privy Seal, "all my houses, 
lands, tenantements and hereditaments whatsoever, 
situate lying and being in the parishes of Louthe 
and Great Carleton, in the county of Lincoln to- 
gether with my coat of armes;" and charges him 
to pay certain legacies not exceeding the sum of 
eighty pounds, out of which he reserves to himself 
twenty pounds to be disposed of as he chooses in 
his life-time. The sum of twenty pounds is to be 
disbursed about the funeral. To his most worthy 
friend. Sir Samuel Saltonstall Knight, he gives five 
pounds; to Morris Tread way, five pounds; to his 
sister Smith, the widow of his brother, ten pounds; 
to his cousin Steven Smith, and his sister, six 
pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence between 
them; to Thomas Packer, Joane, his wife, and 
Eleanor, his daughter, ten pounds among them; to 
" Mr. Reynolds, the lay M"" of the Goldsmiths Hall, 
the sum of forty shillings;" to Thomas, the son of 
said Thomas Packer, " my trunk standing in my 
chamber at Sr Samuel Saltonstall's house in St. 
Sepulcher's parish, together with my best suit of 
apparel of a tawny color viz hose, doublet jirkin 



292 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^Et. 52 

and cloak," " also, my trunk bound with iron bars 
standing in the house of Richard Hinde in Lam- 
beth, together with half the books therein;" the 
other half of the books to Mr. John Tredeskin and 
Richard Hinde. His much honored friend, Sir 
Samuel Saltonstall, and Thomas Packer, were joint 
executors, and the will was acknowledged in the 
presence " of Willmu Keble Sn'' civitas, London, 
William Packer, Elizabeth Sewster, Marmaduke 
Walker, his mark, witness." 

We have no idea that Thomas Packer got rich 
out of the houses, lands and tenements in the 
county of Lincoln. The will is that of a poor man, 
and reference to his trunks standing about in the 
houses of his friends, and to his chamber in the 
house of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, may be taken as 
proof that he had no independent and permanent 
abiding-place. 

It is supposed that he was buried in St. Sepul- 
cher's Church. The negative evidence of this is 
his residence in the parish at the time of his death, 
and the more positive, a record in Stow's *' Survey 
of London," 1633, which we copy in full: 

This Table is on the south side of the Quire in Saint Sepul- 
chers, 

with this Inscription. 

To the living Memory of his deceased Friend, Captaine John 
Smith, who departed this mortall life on the 21 day of June, 
1631, with his Armes, and this Motto, 

Accordaimis, vincere est vivere. 

Here lies one conquer'd 

that hath conquer'd Kings, 
Subdu'd large Territories, 

and done things 



i63i] DEATH AND CHARACTER, 293 

Which to the World 

impossible would seeme, 
But that the truth 

is held in more esteeme, 
Shall I report 

His former service done 
In honour of his God 
and Christendome: 
How that he did 

divide from Pagans three, 

Their heads and Lives, 

types of his chivalry: 

For which great service 

in that Climate done, 

Brave Sigismundus 

(King of Hungarion) 
Did give him as a Coat 

of Armes to weare, 
Those conquer'd heads 

got by his Sword and Speare ? 
Or shall I tell 

of his adventures since, 
Done in Virginia, 

that large Continence: 
How that he subdu'd 

Kings unto his yoke, 
And made those heathen flie, 

as wind doth smoke: 
And made their Land, 

being of so large a Station, 
A habitation 

for our Christian Nation: 
Where God is glorifi'd, 
their wants suppli'd, 
Which else for necessaries 

might have di'd? 
But what avails his Conquest, 

now he lyes 
Inter'd in earth 

a prey for Wormes & Flies ? 
O may his soule 



294 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [iEt. 52 

in sweet Elizium sleepe, 
Untill the Keeper 

that all soules doth keepe, 
Returne to judgement, 

and that after thence, 
With Angels he may have 

his recompence. 

Caplaine John Smith, sometime Governour of Virginia, and 
Admirall of New England. 

This remarkable epitaph is such an autobio 
graphical record as Smith might have written him 
self. That it was engraved upon a tablet and set 
up in this church rests entirely upon the authority 
of Stow. The present pilgrim to the old church 
will find no memorial that Smith was buried there, 
and will encounter besides incredulity of the tradi- 
tion that he ever rested there. 

The old church of St. Sepulcher's, formerly at the 
confluence of Snow Hill and the Old Bailey, now 
lifts its head far above the pompous viaduct which 
spans the valley along which the Fleet Ditch once 
flowed. All the registers of burial in the church 
were destroyed by the great fire of 1666, which burnt 
down the edifice from floor to roof, leaving only the 
walls and tower standing. Mr. Charles Deane, 
whose lively interest in Smith led him recently to 
pay a visit to St. Sepulcher's, speaks of it as the 
church "under the pavement of which the remains 
of our hero were buried; but he was not able to see 
the stone placed over those remains, as the floor of 
the church at that time was covered with a carpet, 
o . . The epitaph to his memory, however, it is 
understood, cannot now be deciphered upon the 
tablet," — which he supposes to be the one in Stow. 

The existing tablet is a slab of bluish-black mar- 



1631] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 295 

ble, which formerly was in the chancel. That it in 
no way relates to Capt. Smith a near examination 
of it shows. This slab has an escutcheon which in- 
dicates three heads, which a lively imagination may 
conceive to be those of Moors, on a line in the up- 
per left corner on the husband's side of a shield, 
which is divided by a perpendicular line. As Smith 
had no wife, this could not have been his cogni- 
zance. Nor are these his arms, which were three 
Turks' heads borne over and beneath a chevron. 
The cognizance of " Moors' heads," as we have said, 
was not singular in the Middle Ages, and there ex- 
isted recently in this very church another tomb 
which bore a Moor'« head as a family badge. The 
inscription itself is in a style of lettering unlike that 
used in the time of James I., and the letters are be- 
lieved not to belong to an earlier period than that 
of the Georges. This bluish-black stone has been 
recently gazed at by many pilgrims from this side 
of the ocean, with something of the feeling with 
which the Moslems regard the Kaaba at Mecca. 
This veneration is misplaced, for upon the stone 
are distinctly visible these words: 

" Departed this life September .... 

Sixty-six years .... 

months . . . . " 

As John Smith died in June, 1631, in his fifty-sec- 
ond year, this stone is clearly not in his honor: and 
if his dust rests in this church, the fire of 1666 made 
it probably a labor of wasted love to look here- 
abouts for any monument of him. 

A few years ago some American antiquarians 
desired to place some monument to the "Admiral 
of New England " in this church, and a memorial 



296 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 52 

window, commemorating the " Baptism of Poca- 
hontas," was suggested. We have been told, how- 
ever, that a custom of St. Sepulcher's requires a 
handsome bonus to the rector for any memorial set 
up in the church, which the kindly incumbent had 
no power to set aside (in his own case) for a foreign 
gift and act of international courtesy of this sort; 
and the project was abandoned. 

Nearly every trace of this insatiable explorer of 
the earth has disappeared from it except in his own 
writings. The only monument to his memory exist- 
ing is a shabby little marble shaft erected on the 
southerly summit of Star Island, one of the Isles 
of Shoals. By a kind of irony of fortune, which 
Smith would have grimly appreciated, the only 
stone to perpetuate his fame stands upon a little 
heap of rocks in the sea; upon which it is only an 
inference that he ever set foot; and we can almost 
hear him say again, looking round upon this roomy 
earth, so much of which he possessed in his mind, 
'' No lot for me but Smith's Isles, which are an array 
of barren rocks, the most overgrowne with shrubs 
and sharpe whins you can hardly passe them: with- 
out either grasse or wood but three or foure short 
shrubby old cedars." 

Nearly all of Smith's biographers and the his- 
torians of Virginia have, with great respect, woven 
his romances about his career into their narratives, 
imparting to their paraphrases of his story such an 
elevation as his own opinion of himself seemed to 
demand. Of contemporary estimate of him there 
is little to quote except the panegyrics in verse he 
has preserved for us, and the inference from his 
own writings that he was the object of calumny 
and detraction. Enemies he had in plenty, but 



1631] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 297 

there are no records left of their opinion of his 
character. The nearest biographical notice of him 
in point of time is found in the " History of the 
Worthies of England," by Thomas Fuller, D.D., 
London, 1662. 

Old Fuller's school-master was Master Arthur 
Smith, a kinsman of John, who told him that John 
was born in Lincolnshire, and it is probable that 
Fuller received from his teacher some impression 
about the adventurer. 

Of his "strange performances" in Hungary Fuller 
says: " The scene whereof is laid at such a distance 
that they are cheaper credited than confuted." 

" From the Turks in Europe he passed to the 
pagans in America, where towards the latter end 
of the reign of Queen Elizabeth [it was in the reign 
of James] such his perils, preservations, dangers, 
deliverances, they seem to most men above belief, 
to some beyond truth. Yet have we two witnesses 
to attest them, the prose and the pictures, both in 
his own book; and it soundeth much to the dimi- 
nution of his deeds that he alone is the herald to 
publish and proclaim them." 

" Surely such reports from strangers carry the 
greater reputation. However, moderate men must 
allow Captain Smith to have been very instrumental 
in settling the plantation in Virginia, whereof he 
was governor, as also Admiral of New England." 

" He led his old age in London, where his having 
a prince's mind imprisoned in a poor man's purse, 
rendered him to the contempt of such as were not 
ingenuous. Yet he efforted his spirits with the 
remembrance and relation of what formerly he had 
been, and what he had done." 

Of the " ranting epitaph," quoted above. Fuller 



298 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.^t. 52 

says: "The orthography, poetry, history and divin- 
ity in this epitaph are much alike." 

Without taking Capt. John Smith at his own esti- 
mate of himself, he was a peculiar character even 
for the times in which he lived. He shared with 
his contemporaries the restless spirit of roving and 
adventure which resulted from the invention of the 
mariner's compass and the discovery of the New 
World; but he was neither so sordid nor so rapa- 
cious as many of them, for his boyhood reading of 
romances had evidently fired him with the conceits 
of the past chivalric period. This imported into 
his conduct something inflated and something 
elevated. And, besides, with all his enormous con- 
ceit, he had a stratum of practical good sense, a 
shrewd wit, and the salt of humor. 

If Shakespeare had known him, as he might have 
done, he would have had a character ready to his 
hand that would have added one of the most amusing 
and interesting portraits to his gallery. He faintly 
suggests a moral Falstaff, if we can imagine a 
Falstaff without vices. As a narrator he has the 
swagger of a Capt. Dalghetty, but his actions are 
marked by honesty and sincerity. He appears to 
have had none of the small vices of the gallants of 
his time. His chivalric attitude toward certain 
ladies who appear in his adventures, must have 
been sufficiently amusing to his associates. There 
is about his virtue a certain antique flavor which 
must have seemed strange to the adventurers and 
court hangers-on in London. Not improbably his 
assumptions were offensive to the ungodly, and his 
ingenuous boastings made him the object of amuse- 
ment to the skeptics. Their ridicule would natu- 
rally appear to him to arise from envy. We read 



i63i] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 299 

between the lines of his own eulogies of himself, 
that there was a wide-spread skepticism about his 
greatness and his achievements, which he attributed 
to jealousy. Perhaps his obtrusive virtues made 
him enemies, and his rectitude was a standing 
offense to his associates. 

It is certain he got on well with scarcely any- 
body with whom he was thrown in his enterprises. 
He was of common origin, and always carried with 
him the need of assertion in an insecure position. 
He appears to us always self-conscious and ill at 
ease with gentlemen born. The captains of his own 
station resented his assumptions of superiority, and 
while he did not try to win them by an affectation 
of comradeship, he probably repelled those of bettef 
breeding by a swaggering manner. No doubt his 
want of advancement was partly due to want of in- 
fluence, which better birth would have given him; 
but the plain truth is that he had a talent for 
making himself disagreeable to his associates. Un- 
fortunately he never engaged in any enterprise with 
any one on earth who was so capable of conducting 
it as himself, and this fact he always made plain to 
his comrades. Skill he had in managing savages, 
but with his equals among whites he lacked tact, 
and knew not the secret of having his own way 
without seeming to have it. He was insubordinate, 
impatient of any authority over him, and unwilling 
to submit to discipline he did not himself impose. 

Yet it must be said that he was less self-seeking 
that those who were with him in Virginia, making 
glory his aim rather than gain always; that he had 
a superior conception of what a colony should be, 
and how it should establish itself, and that his 
judgment of what was best was nearly always vin- 



300 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 52 

dicated by the event He was not the founder of 
the Virginia colony, its final success was not due to 
him, but it was owing almost entirely to his pluck 
and energy that it held on and maintained an ex- 
istence during the two years and a half that he was 
with it at Jamestown. And to effect this mere 
holding on, with the vagabond crew that composed 
most of the colony, and with the extravagant and 
unintelligent expectations of the London Company, 
was a feat showing decided ability. He had the 
qualities fitting him to be an explorer and the leader 
of an expedition. He does not appear to have had 
the character necessary to impress his authority on 
a community. He was quarrelsome, irascible, and 
quick to fancy that his full value was not admitted. 
He shines most upon such small expeditions as the 
exploration of the Chesapeake; then his energy, 
self-confidence, shrewdness, inventiveness, had free 
play, and his pluck and perseverance are recognized 
as of the true heroic substance. 

Smith, as we have seen, estimated at their full in- 
significance such flummeries as the coronation of 
Powhatan, and the foolishness of taxing the ener- 
gies of the colony to explore the country for gold 
and chase the phantom of the South Sea. In his 
discernment and in his conceptions of what is now 
called "political economy" he was in advance of 
his age. He was an advocate of " free trade " be- 
fore the term was invented. In his advice given to 
the New England plantation in his " Advertise- 
ments" he says: 

" Now as his Majesty has made you custome- 
free for seven yeares, have a care that all your coun- 
trymen shall come to trade with you, be not troubled 
with pilotage, boyage, ancorage, wharfage, custome. 



1631J DEATH AND CHARACTER. 3OI 

or any such tricks as hath been lately used in most 
of our plantations, where they would be Kings be- 
fore their folly; to the discouragement of many, 
and a scorne to them of understanding, for Dutch, 
French, Biskin, or any will as yet use freely the 
Coast without controule, and why not English as 
well as they ? Therefore use all commers with that 
respect, courtesie, and liberty is fitting, which will 
in a short time much increase your trade and ship- 
ping to fetch it from you, for as yet it were not good 
to adventure any more abroad with factors till you 
bee better provided; now there is nothing more en- 
richeth a Common-wealth than much trade, nor no 
meanes better to increase than small custome, as 
Holland, Genua, Ligorne, as divers other places can 
well tell you, and doth most beggar those places 
where they take most custome, as Turkic, the Archi- 
pelegan lies, Cicilia, the Spanish ports, but that 
their officers will connive to enrich themselves, 
though undo the state." 

It may perhaps be admitted that he knew better 
than the London or the Plymouth company what 
ought to be done in the New World, but it is absurd 
to suppose that his success or his ability forfeited 
him the confidence of both companies, and shut 
him out of employment. The simple truth seems 
to be that his arrogance and conceit and importu- 
nity made him unpopular, and that his proverbial 
ill-luck was set off against his ability. 

Although he was fully charged with the piety of 
his age, and kept in mind his humble dependence 
on divine grace when he was plundering Venetian 
argosies or lying to the Indians, or fighting any- 
where simply for excitement or booty, and was 
always as devout as a modern Sicilian or Greek 



302 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [.Et. 52 

robber; he had a humorous appreciation of the 
value of the religions current in his day. He saw- 
through the hypocrisy of the London Company, 
'' making religion their color, when all their aim 
was nothing but present profit." There was great 
talk about Christianizing the Indians; but the colo- 
nists in Virginia taught them chiefly the corrup- 
tions of civilized life, and those who were dispatched 
to England soon became debauched by London 
vices. " Much they blamed us [he writes] for not 
converting the Salvages, when those they sent us 
were little better, if not worse, nor did they all con- 
vert any of those we sent them to England for that 
purpose." 

Capt. John Smith died unmarried, nor is there 
any record that he ever had wife or children. This 
disposes of the claim of subsequent John Smiths to 
be descended from him. He was the last of that 
race; the others are imitations. He was wedded to 
glory. That he w^as not insensible to the charms of 
female beauty, and to the heavenly pity in their 
hearts, which is their chief grace, his writings 
abundantly evince; but to taste the pleasures of 
dangerous adventure, to learn war and to pick up 
his living with his sword, and to fight wherever 
piety showed recompense would follow, was the 
passion of his youth, while his manhood was given 
to the arduous ambition of enlarging the domains 
of England and enrolling his name among those 
heroes who make an ineffaceable impression upon 
their age. There was no time in his life when he 
had leisure to marry, or v^hen it would have been 
consistent with his schemes to have tied himself to 
a home. 

As a writer he was wholly untrained, but with 



1631] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 303 

all his introversions and obscurities he is the most 
readable chronicler of his time, the most amusing 
and as untrustv/orthy as any. He is influenced by 
his prejudices, though not so much by them as by 
his imagination and vanity. He had a habit of 
accurate observation, as his maps show, and this 
trait gives to his statements and descriptions, when 
his own reputation is not concerned, a value beyond 
that of those of most contemporary travelers. And 
there is another thing to be said about his writings. 
They are uncommonly clean for his day. Only 
here and there is coarseness encountered. In an age 
when nastiness was written as well as spoken, and 
when most travelers felt called upon to satisfy a 
curiosity for prurient observations, Smith preserved 
a tone quite remarkable for general purity. 

Capt. Smith is in some respects a very good type 
of the restless adventurers of his age; but he had a 
little more pseudo-chivalry at one end of his life, 
and a little more piety at the other, than the rest. 
There is a decidedly heroic element in his courage, 
hardihood, and enthusiasm, softened to the modern 
observer's comprehension by the humorous contrast 
between his achievements and his estimate of them. 
Between his actual deeds as he relates them, and 
his noble sentiments, there is also sometimes a con- 
trast pleasing to the worldly mind. He is just 
one of those characters who would be more agreeable 
on the stage than in private life. His extraordi- 
nary conceit would be entertaining if one did not 
see too much of him. Although he was such a 
romancer that we can accept few of his unsupported 
statements about himself, there was, nevertheless, 
a certain verity in his character which showed some- 
thing more than loyalty to his own fortune; he 



304 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. [^t. 52 

could be faithful to an ambition for the public 
good. Those who knew him best must have found 
in him very likable qualities, and acknowledged the 
generosities of his nature, while they were amused 
at his humorous spleen and his serious contempla- 
tion of his own greatness. There is a kind of sim- 
plicity in his self-appreciation that wins one, and it 
is impossible for the candid student of his career 
not to feel kindly towards the " sometime Governor 
of Virginia and Admiral of New England." 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



America, discovery of direct 

passage to continent of, 36; 

first book written in, 238; 

first child born, 51 [See 

New England. Virginia] 
Antimony discovered, 138 
Battoris, the, 18, 26 
Bermudas, settlement of, 195 
Burke, J:, quoted, 123 
Caniza, 12 

Caucus, origin of word, 209 
Chivalric customs of Turks, 21 
Conundrum, early use of 

word, 244 
Dale, Sir T:, 224 
Dare, Virginia, 51, 55, 56 
Deane, C:, his examination of 

Smith's works, loi 
De Bry cited, 140 
Eggleston, E:, cited, 15 
Fuller, T:, quoted, 297 
Gilbert, Sir H:, 39, 40 
Gosnold, Capt. B., 36, 77 
Grenville, Sir R:, 37 
Hakluyt, R:, 37 
Hatorask, see Roanoke 
Hudson, H:, 174 
Indians, customs, 73, 243; 

modes of punishment, 241; 

religion, 49, 128, 241; ex- 



Indians {continued.) 

perience of those sent to 
England, 229, 235 

Jamestown, foundation of, 
64; community of goods, 
223; difficulties of colonists, 
75; Wingfield deposed, 78; 
church built, 89; excite- 
ment about gold, 93; bad 
condition of colony, 139; 
women arrive, 143; selfish 
conduct of colonists, 149; 
account of them in 1608, 
150; first marriage, 154; 
prosperity, 167, 186; new 
settlers, 175; their bad char- 
acter, 187, 224; later his- 
tory, 190, 223; private prop- 
erty introduced, 223 

Lincolnshire, 3 

London in Smith's time, 249 

Massachusetts founded under 
different auspices from Vir- 
ginia, 162 

Meldrich, "Earl," 19 

Mercoeur, Duke of, 15; fights 
against Henry IV., 6; serves 
in Hungary, 6, 14; death, 17 

" Mercury," Duke of, see 
Mercoeur 



3o6 



INDEX. 



New England coast explored, 
250; name given by Smith, 
251; his description of it, 
255; first settlements, 276 

Newport, Capt., 69, 74, 86, 
I2Q, 143 

Ortiz, J., 287 

Pocahontas, various versions 
of her story, loi; evidence 
against popular account, 
III, 126; its want of orig- 
inality, 288; Burke's ver- 
sion, 123; Smith's account, 
231, 265, 285; — welcomes 
Smith, 145; warns him, 
158; proposed marriage to 
him, 189; is kidnapped, 
211; marriage to Rolfe, 
215; its importance, 216; 
goes to England, 228; is 
entertained there, 230, 235; 
interview with Smith, 234; 
death, 237; descendants, 
238-9; fame, 246; charac- 
ter, 200, 244; dress, 206; 
meaning of name, 207 

Powhatan, 67, 155, 244; court, 
130; coronation, 146; en- 
mity to whites, 159; decoys 
them, 182; refuses his second 
daughter, 227; death, 239 

Profanity, Smith's cure for, 148 

Raleigh, Sir W., does not go 
to Virginia, 39; or to New- 
foundland, 41; first expedi- 
tion, 39 [See Roanoke] 

Roanoke settlement, 41,42,44, 
45. 50, 51, 170; theories of 
the disappearance, 53 



Rolfe, J:, 217; reasons for 
marrying Pocahontas, 218; 
alleged treason in doing so, 
236; last years, 238 

Sandys, G:, 238 

Sigismund, see Battori 

Smith, Captain J:, task im- 
posed on his biographer, iii; 
character of previous works 
on, iii; of the present, iv; 
new evidence, iii; his own 
account of himself, iv, v, i, 
2, 115, 183; the "True Re- 
lation," lOI 

birth, 2; ancestry, 3; 

early years, 4; in France, 
5; in Low Countries, 6; 
in Scotland, 6; eccentric 
life at home, 7; again in Low 
Countries, 8; enticed to 
France, 8; poverty, 8; ad- 
ventures, 9; in the Mediter- 
ranean, 9, 10; in Italy, 11; 
fights the Turks in Hungary, 
12; importance of his servi- 
ces, 13; in Transylvania, 20; 
single combat with Turkish 
champions, 22; inWallachia, 
27; taken prisoner, 28; life 
as slave, 29-31; escapes, 32; 
in Spain and Morocco, 32; 
in England, 33; sails for Vir- 
ginia, is imprisoned, 60; be- 
comes member of council, 
72; indicted but saved, 86; 
Chicahominy expedition, 
103; explores Chesapeake, 
135; — Potomac, 137; be- 
comes president, 143; sue- 



INDEX. 



307 



Smith, Captain J. {continued^ 
cess against Powhatan, 161; 
prowess in single combat, 
164; accident, 178; resigns, 
183; opinions of him, 185; 
charges, 188; letter to the 
queen, 231; disgrace and 
friends, 248; offers his ser- 
vices to Plymouth Company, 
250; sails for New England, 
251; engages in whale-fishe- 
ry, 252; adventures with pi- 
rates, 259; escape, 261; pov- 
erty, 289; burial, 292; mon- 
ument, 295; character, 298 

his arms, 25, 288; capa- 
city and enterprise, 87, 95, 
163; foresight, 255; advo- 
cates free-trade, 300; way of 
dealing with Indians, 134; 
dexterity in trade, 131; not 
more adventurer than Amer- 
icans of our day, 8; not the 
first adventurer saved by a 
woman, 287; his invention 
of signals, 12, 287; of "fiery 
dragons," 15; other inven- 
tions, 27; his writings, 252, 
272, 278 seq. ; list of these, v; 
the first of "American hu- 
morists," 191; his maps, 251 



Somerset, Sir G:, 195, 199 

Spelman, H:, 175, 179; his 
journal, 180 

Strachey, W:, 202; publica- 
tion of his journal, 204 

Susquehannocks, 140 

Tobacco, introduction of, 45; 
progress in the East, 47; 
medicinal qualities, 48 

Transylvania in 17th century, 
18, 26 

Turks, their successes in Eu- 
rope, 12 

Virginia, early attempts at 
settlement, 37; founded un- 
der different auspices than 
Massachusetts, 162; charter, 
38; first expedition, 58; 
want of harmony, 60; ex- 
ploration, 65; intercourse 
with natives, 67; the cross 
planted with a lie, 69; new 
charter, 172; code, 203; char- 
ter revoked, 275 [See James- 
town, Roanoke] 

Wallachia in 17th century, 
27 

Willoughby, Eng., 3, 4 

Wingfield, Capt., 64, 78, 90 

Women, savage, devotion of, 
158 



M 




